As I pull into my driveway after work this afternoon, I see a family of people in my side yard, one very near the gate into my back yard. As I get out of my van, they quickly say they are looking at ... something ... I'm not making out the word they are saying.


"He's taking a picture of a spider we saw from across the street." one of them says.

I go to look, and there is a huge spiderweb, with a large spider in its center, a half-sized one towards the side, and a dead, eaten one higher up.

They take cellphone camera pictures. I reassure them that I'm not calling the cops on them. They finally leave.

So I go in and fire up one of our digital cameras...



... does anyone have a clue as to what this monster is?








Do not scroll down if spiders bother you.







Do not scroll down if spiders bother you.










Do not scroll down if spiders bother you.













Do not scroll down if spiders bother you.

That is an Argiope aurantia, also known as a "writing spider".

Writing Spider

Edit: That is a female btw and the smaller dead one you saw in the web was most likely the male.

My wife is a farmgirl (with a Stanford degree in history), and she responds to the photos (with my warning about how we must deal with these guys when we take out the garbage and recycling cans through that gate this evening) with: "... you city kids..." with absolute sarcasm dripping in her voice.

She says she'll take a stick, unhook the web from the house side, and they'll run away & hide.

Okayyyyyy...

Quoting 8ballMax:

Quote:
They're harmless and here in California they are protected by law.

I can just see the defense... and how did you determine that the "wet spot" on the ground was a Argiope aurantia?

Quoting skipnet50:

Quote:

Is there anything NOT protected in California?

Yeah. The right for Hollywood to actually have an original idea.

I would have responded with "Run to the hills, it's Shelob!!!"

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
OK... I admit it... I have a bad case of Arachnophobia... even though pictures do creep me out a bit... I can handle them... but if I was there... there would be no way to get me even near the back yard till it was gone! 

Spiders scare the living daylights out of me too... I have been known to scream

largest one I have ever seen up close was green color, sitting about two feet above my head while I was sitting on the sofa watching a DVD. Only saw him/her when tilting my head backwards to finish the beer I was drinking. Size: approx. like a grown man's hand, with a body like a walnut (actually quite beautiful). Finished the DVD watching from a chair on the other side of the room, looking at the spider every few seconds. Later two friends visited me and I greeted them: "You can have a beer, after that spider is out of here." (we did not kill it). I never found out what kind it was.

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
I think the worst for me was when I was younger my brother (who was in the next room) had a pet Tarantula... let me tell you... I wouldn't even go in his room the whole time he had it... whether it was in his cage or not!

I would probably not have survived my childhood... Here lies Achim, who died of fear.