Thank you everyone!
chrisk72 and Bromley, I think you guys are right, it looks exactly like your pcitures, right down to the pattern on its, er, whatever that huge bulbous thing it dragged over my foot is.
I feel relieved that it wasn’t venomous, but still holy shit I was freaked out…
Oh and thanks everyone for showing me how useless Tripod is, I won’t ever use them again.
Anyone have any better suggestions for free websites that I can use to temporarily upload the occasional picture to, for occasions like this?
GMRyujin:
Just you. I, myself, have had the urge to blast it with a 1920’s-style death ray.
I know! All these double posts are annoying, aren’t they? But that’s the server’s fault, not your monitor’s.
At least the spider is cute. We have one of these living on the outside of our front window and I’d wondered what it was. Thanks for the information, everyone!
There are more photos of this species here, along with other orb weavers:
http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/orbweaver.htm
Beautiful, aren’t they?
I wonder why they can survive with such bright colors. Are they poisonous? (I know they’re not venomous, but that’s different.)
Thanks for that, scr4! Some nice photos there. 
And I don’t think they’re poisonous, plenty of birds eat them. But I think it’s only birds that can hover that bother to go after them. For other kinds, the downside of getting strong and sticky web on their feathers probably outweighs the upside. The bright coloring probably serves as a warning to stay away, rather than a “come and eat me” signal.
Try www.boomspeed.com … scroll down a little for the FREE 1Mb account.
chrisk72, for a moment there I thought the spider in your link was sitting on a bunch of tomatoes. 
Julie
Why di I even open threads like this?
::heee-beeeee-jeeeeee-beeees::
That’s interesting, do some birds actually hover in front of the web and peck off the spider? I thought only hummingbirds can “hover” in the true sense.
BTW I too was startled by chrisk72’s link. I thought that spider was twice the size of a ripe tomato!
Think how squishy that thing would be if you stepped on it! :eek:
Ulp I just looked at the recluse bite photos! (You have to scroll down quite a ways to see them, it gives symptoms first.) NowI know to GET TREATMENT FAST if a spider bite shows such signs. Retch
(Swallows can “hover”. They are really cool to watch, holding position in one place in a current. They glide more than flap, but it’s the same result. )
I thought they were cherry tomatoes at first, too.
OK, you know we have to look after you say something like that. But I wish I hadn’t. We definitely need that barfing smiley. Nope, no lunch for me today. stumbles away with a seasick gait…
I was being very literal with my warning. I’m sorry. 
If it’s any consolation, I don’t feel like eating either.
Holy crap! What kind of spider WAS this??
When you say “WAS”, does that mean it met a squishy end?
Sadly, yes. Actually I killed it with bug spray. Wasn’t going to take a chance that it was poisonous and that one of my kids might get bitten while playing on the deck.
I mean, why the hell was it waltzing across my deck (and foot) instead of weaving it’s stupid orb or something?
All spiders are poisonous, without exception. That is to say they all have poison glands.
It’s just that most are not terribly toxic vis-a-vis people ( or have fangs too tiny to penetrate the skin ). However individual allergic reactions are always a remote possibility, even with ‘harmless’ species.
Well, there’s a company called 1and1 that is offering a pretty darn good hosting package for 3 years free. 500 MB storage space, 5 GB /month traffic.
They’re legit as far as I can tell - I’ve signed up with them myself. They have 2-page ad spreads in a lot of the major PC magazines this month, which makes me even more inclined to think that it’s not a scam. Offer’s only good until 12/31.
There’s a big banner on the front page to click.
You don’t even have to give them your CC# or anything.
We have honeyeaters here, like the Red Wattlebird which can hover. Not as well as a hummingbird, but they do it for the same reason - to get at flowers. They also eat insects and spiders.
This is not true, Tamerlane. Spiders of the Uloboridae family lack venom glands. These spiders typically wrap their prey in silk and eat them alive. One such spider is the Feather Legged Weaver spider, photo below: