Close-up. About 6" long. Googled and couldn’t find it anywhere. Any ideas?
Can’t give you an ID, unfortunately, but that one looks gorgeous!
Looks like a variation on the old yellow and black garden spider. (Definitely looks like an argiope.) I mean if it wasn’t for the color I’d think it was this one.
My guess is that it’s a Argiope appensa. They are usually black and yellow but some are black and white like this.
Yes, looks similar to those mentioned. Its body was more globe-shaped than oblong, which is the only thing that was throwing me off on the ID.
Allow me to be the first to say…
GAAAAAH! SPIDER!!!
The only thing worse than imagining having one of these spiders on you is imagining the mess it would make if you stepped on one! Wait, that’s not worse than having one on you. Never mind.
Yeah, but the one in the OP is 6 inches long. Argiope is, maybe, an inch.
I think these are similar species to your Hawaiian critters. I can’t remember where this photo came from so I have no idea who, what, where, when.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prehenpen/
Well to clarify the body on an argiope is about an inch. The legs would add a bit to that. However the spider he shows is a web builder and that’s pretty much as big as they get. Actually a nephila might be a little bigger, maybe 1.5 inches for the body. (BTW, that’s what was shown in another reply.) Seriously, if he actually found a spider with a body 6 inches in length it’s basically one of the largest spiders on the planet and would greatly dwarf any other web builder. (It’d be roughly 50 times heavier than a nephilia.)
Yes, I was including the whole “wingspan” in the length. I would say the body was between 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" in length.
Seriously, brujaja, how could it be a surprise? It’s twice in the thread title and on mouseover it should be clear there’s a link to a spider picture.
Anyway, my parents had one of those near their gate on Oahu. Same size, slightly brighter colors. We called it a garden spider.
Does that mean you missed the spiderweb-covered trees? 