EW.

Brandon and I headed out to my parents' house yesterday so Brandon could help them update their computer and clean their hard drive. I spent the afternoon visiting family and taking pictures because I am no help what-so-ever in the computer area. While out roaming in the field taking pictures, I happened to look down by my foot.....This BIG sucker was mere inches from my leg.

I nearly pooped my pants.

I took a quick picture before it tried to eat me, and then ran, squealing, back to the trail. That spider was monstrous....its body was about the size of an oblong half-dollar. I.kid.you.not. It wasn't enough that it was giving me the heebie-jeebies just for seeing it; I had also convinced myself that her like-sized friends were on my back and hair. For the rest of the evening, anything that brushed against me gave me a small coronary event. It was a long evening.

I did some research today (now I'm itchy and freaked out again) and determined that this is an Argiope aurantia. Some info if you care to know more...

"These spiders are found from occur from southern Canada south through the lower 48 United States, Mexico, and Central America as far south as Costa Rica. (Milne and Milne, 1980; Platnick, 2004)

As is true in many spider species, females of this species grow to much larger size than males. Adult female body length ranges from 19 to 28 mm (3/4 to 1 1/8 in.), while males reach only 5 to 9 mm (1/4 - 3/8 in.). In both sexes, the shiny, egg-shaped abdomen has striking yellow or orange markings on a black background. The forward part of the body, the cephalothorax, is covered with short, silvery hairs. Legs are mostly black, with red or yellow portions near the body. (Dewey, 1993; Milne and Milne, 1980).

Web construction is complicated. To start the web, Argiope firmly grasps a substrate like a grass stem or window frame. She lifts her abdomen and emits several strands of silk from her spinnerets that merge into one thread. The free end of the thread drifts until it touches something far away, like a stem or a flower stalk. She then creates bridge lines, and other scaffolding to help her build the framework of the web. She builds a hub with threads radiating from it like a spokes of a wheel. She switches to sticky silk for the threads spiraling around this hub that will actually catch her prey. It may take a few hours to complete the web, then she eats the temporary scaffolding and the center hub. Argiope spiders often add stabilimenta, or heavy zig-zagging portions, in their webs. A stabilimentum may or may not aid prey capture (see below). The entire web is usually eaten and then rebuilt each night, often in the same place. (Dewey, 1993; Faulkner, 1999; Lyon, 1995; Milne and Milne, 1980; Nyffeler, Dean, and Sterling, 1987; Zschokke, 2006)."
(http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Argiope_aurantia.html)

I don't care that she isn't poisonous...still creeps me out.