Oh god, absolutely gorgeous. <3

WHERE'S YOUR POKEBALL?

I love orb weavers <3

Argiopes are great :D

don't those spiders get big enough to eat birds?

Yep. lol

yay for a good memory, also where was this, I thought these spiders lived in more tropical regions like Central America

Oklahoma....I think there's probably several varieties though, when I was looking at pics online I saw quite a few that didn't look anything like this one.

yeah, I would hate running into one of their webs, god getting bit would be a night mare

Funny story.. I had a car that one of the windows wouldn't roll up all the way. I was running late for work, and leaned in the passenger side of my car to put my stuff in and noticed the huge web that was ceiling to seat, and driver door to middle console.

I'm not scared of spiders, but i'd rather not run into a spider that's 2 inches big.

Yeah, spiders that big, are not much as gross as they one of the moments to go, I should really think twice about what I am going to. so what did you do, call in and say "um,,, I am going to be a little late."

I used a broom to "sweep" it out. Then looked around in the car for it, but i couldnt find it. so i got in and started to drive. I looked out my left window and there she/it was, right above the window. I jumped out of the car, realized it was still moving, so i reached in and put it in neutral. and then got the broom again and knocked it down and out of the car. Then went to work

Nice. Real nice.

Only in Australia.

oh thank the gods

are you the kind of girl that likes spiders?

I love all sorts of creepie-crawlies. Spiders are among the top faves. :)

awesome! i love spiders too, i have these crossback spiders that builds webs around my house, they are so cute that i even feed them insects!

I think my favorites are the wolf spiders. Found a few of them when I first moved into my apartment, caught them in a jar and let them go outside. I also really love jumping spiders, they're so cute. >u< I have a pretty good sized jumping spider that lives in my window and eats flies. :)

awesome! Jumpingspiders are rare at my place, but ive played with a laserpointer with them, they like to chase the red dot around like a cat X3

That's adorable. lol

D':...beautiful though

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Not in MY back yard. :p

No of course not *cocks shotgun*

now draw an anthro version of it

I was actually looking at this trying to think of how I could transfer her colors and patterns over to a character, might be rather interesting. >u>

If it were a wolf spider, you could put it on a wolf. :3

But spiders can be anthro-ed. I've done it, I've seen a few others who've done it.

I have too, some done really well. does really good ones as I recall.

Me personally though, I'm a mammal girl. I like putting the colors of birds, insects and fish on mammalian characters, you can sometimes get really neat results. :D

Used to have those around the house where I grew up in Georgia. Used to fish the crickets out of the pool and toss them into the web for them...(not talking tiny crickets either). They looooved all the food.

Oh believe me, I really wanted to feed her something but I couldn't catch anything. lol

Ohhh, we get those here (GA) all the time. I've always heard them called Zipper Spiders... apparently they are the same thing lol. Glad this is a pic and not -actually- near me. Arachnophobia and all that. Great picture though!!

omg o-o

I think I remember a spider like this in a web outside the house a few years back. Probably the biggest one I've seen is this one here. How big do they get usually?

I don't know the full size but I've seen pics of them catching and killing small birds.

oh geez o-o


Still seeing one from this angle, pretty cool. :3 Looks like it's repairing its web a bit in this pic.

That's the Z pattern you're seeing, that's common in their webs. Not sure why...further research needed. lol

The Z pattern is so birds and other critters (Like me) that would bumble into it and wreck the webs will see it. The bugs they catch with the compound eyes cant pick out the zippers till its too late.

Oh really? Cool!

he's pretty.

I think this was a female, I was told the males are typically much smaller. There was a little tiny spider living in a web next to this one's, I'm guessing it was probably her boyfriend. lol

LOL

We have them about my home, I like this species.

down here, we call em banana spiders. during certain season, they can fill every gap between power lines. It crazy. its like.. cotton candy.

very lovely spider, such a nice photo.

By all the love and admiration i have for mother nature and its creations... spiders are a total exception ._.
im just too frightened from them to not squish (actually using textile freshner to finish em off because im too scared to get closer LOL) em when they're around my house ;A;
Im so glad there are only tiny and non poisonous ones in germany DX

We see these all the time back home.

You should blow on it and then watch it rock their web!

But I like to call them Big Nopes~

These are beautiful <3

But please keep them far away from me <3 XDDD

Jesus christ, awesome but so freaky ;w;"

You have never felt true fear until you've been riding a motorbike at 60km/h and one of these has crawled across your face, down your arm, and your mind is torn between swatting at it and crashing and slowing down and parking, then swatting, but leaving it to crawl over you for longer... 0.0

I'd shot her with my 16g securit rifle.

Creepy!

We used to have something like that around our house when I was growing up. Long legs and wide web. The one by my house used to let us pet it xD But we also put bugs we caught in our house on its web (like flies and the like) It got pretty big, but I think a bird got it one day because it wasn't there anymore :<

Dat spider... ~<3
Gorgeous girl!!

J..Jesus. If I saw that thing I would literally cry in fear. It was bad enough when I left the house at 3am to go to work and there was a quarter sized spider between the two bushes in front of my door. I nearly face-planted the spider.

there was a site I used to go to for work, there were hundreds if not thousands of these things all over the place.

looks suspiciously like a relative to what we have here in middle europe: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argiope_bruennichi the german page has a few more awesome pics of them. and they aren't that much smaller, too...

spider they are a love- creep me the fuck out sort of thing. Their like the creepy firend that your fine with as long as you not alone with them lol.

It is a very pretty spider...but they still scare the holy bejesus out of me XD

MOTHER OF GOD!!!! KILL HER WITH FIRE!!!!!

I love these particular spiders! Not only are they gorgeous, but I rescued one that was about the size you described- flippin' huge! I ended up relocating her and her nest ball outside from inside, and was utterly impressed when she immediately moved her nest ball into a tree and started guarding it again. Such a neat creature. :D

Beautiful! :D She looks happy and healthy. Nice shot too, the details are amazing! <3

We had them all over Florida. I used to be the fox in "fox in the hound" games in Boy Scouts (Was good at running and hiding. Was almost never caught) so I am well acquainted with running head first into the webs as I "cleared the trails".

One of the funny things though was in Georgia about 10 years ago, I was testing concrete, bent over to put my cylinders out of the way and when I stood up it was right into one of these thing's webs. The spider ended up on my face, tangled in the web that was hanging between my helmet rim and chin. I stiffened up as the spider slowly crawled its way down my jawline and throat onto my shoulder. This I let happen as I didn't want to get bit.

One of the concrete finishers saw this spider on my face from 25 feet away and started pointing and laughing. The whole crew were on the ground by the time the thing got off my face and onto my layered clothing so I could gack and get the thing off of me. I joined them in laughing at that point. One was trying to get his phone going to record it but I had it off before he got it set up. I kinda wish he had shot the vid as it would have been hilarious to have. :)

I love spiders, but not sure how I'd handle one crawling on my face. Unless it was a jumping spider. lol

In Elementary school I did a science fair project on spiders. We caught this enormous wolf spider in a stable. Probably about twice the size as the spider in the picture I am linking. We put it in an aquarium but didn't realize a bad seal on the lid till it escaped.

My dad was on TDY at the time which is a good thing as he is arachnophobic. Mom said. "Don't tell your father." He came back on Friday night and Sunday morning was a scream for my mom, who went to investigate the noise from the shower. When she came back she whispered "We found it!"

Seriously it was enormous and we had the buggers in the house all the time after that. I had one of the moments pictured below at about 2 in the morning once. The spider was about twice the size as in the picture. I think I passed food I hadn't even eaten yet... ;)

http://www.lolhome.com/img_big/cons.....tion-cured.jpg

My first encounter with wolf spiders was a couple years ago when I still lived with my mom. Her house is 60+ years old so sometimes bugs can get in a little easier than with modern houses. Anyway, was taking a shower and looked up to see an enormous wolf spider chilling on the shower wall. It wasn't so much that I was afraid of it coming after me, I was more worried it would lose its grip on the slick surface and fall on me. But being the spider lover I am, I couldn't squish it, so I cautiously finished my shower and used a cup to escort it outside. Not too long after I found *another* one, and took it outside as well.

When I moved into my current apartment, I found a couple of them too. I think maybe they were in some of the stuff that I'd kept in my mom's garage, and they hitched a ride. I let them go outside as well, couple of full grown men saw me and were surprised I wasn't terrified of them. I told them I had no reason to be, this species is harmless, and they just looked at me like "okaaay..." lol

I pretty much leave the wolf spiders here alone to depopulate the cricket population that drives me insane with their chirping in the kitchen. I have had to draw the line on the Black Widows around here though. Individually, I know where they are and leave them alone. But if you ever have seen one of their egg sacks hatch... well One will turn into over a hundred really quick so I have to squash or poison them so I don't have one under every piece of furniture in the house.

Its sad too as they are very shy inoffensive things unless you mess with them. Venom more potent than a cobra's drop for drop though. I've dumped them out of my shoes before. I don't need to increase the odds of that happening again.

Oh yeah, you have to draw the line when it comes to the spiders and other bugs that can actually cause you harm. I'm pretty sure I'd give the black widows the boot - wouldn't kill them, just relocate them. But pest species like roaches - yeah, they're dead the second I see them.

We call them Banana Spiders in the south. There are thousands of them in my yard at times.

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

That looks like a big 'un, I admire spiders in pictures of from a distance, but if it touched me I'd run shrieking like a little girl.

Last year I had a big orby living in my backyard, it had hooked up a maybe six foot in diameter web from ground to the roof, I wish I could have taken a photo...

arachnophobic is me and just looking at this photo makes my heart race gah ._.