Argiope aurantia

No...I did not misspell the title of this post. And no....these pictures are not from an online encyclopedia.

They are from my camera....taken by my husband....in my backyard. EEK! This crazy huge spider was trying to build a residence in my yard. That is, until it went toe to toe with my brave and virtuous husband. He stomped that thing right to death. Of course, not before snapping some pictures of our potential yard mate. Thank goodness I was out shopping and did not see this beast for myself. I may have died....well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But, I can promise you this....I would have peed a little!

When Rayden showed me these pictures I immediately went to google and tried to identify this monster. I typed in "black and yellow spider" and instantly I found out more than enough data on the suspect (how many incriminating names do you think I can come up with for this creature???). I learned that it has 8 eyes, the females can grow to be as long as 28mm in length, their webs have this distinct zigzag pattern in them, and (most importantly) I learned that they are harmless to humans. Halle--stinkin---luyah!

Although I must be honest....if another one of these perpetrators shows its ugly, eight-eyed face in MY yard....it.will.not.be.pretty. And then, I will go change my underwear.