Walking home from breakfast this morning, we spotted this spectacular Silver Argiope Spider, which reminded us of Ruth Less, the villain in The Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly Costa Rica. “I love spiders! Actually I adore them!” It sort of resembles a frog a bit, doesn’t it?

These particular orb-weaving spiders (spiral wheel-shaped web) can be found in Southern California, Arizona, Central an South America as well as South Florida (where I live). They like to make their webs near bushes, as this one did along side a tennis court. The Silver Argiope can be recognized due to its silver carapace, a sort of armour that covers the thorax of the arachnid. The legs have distinctive silver and dark bands, and the web has zigzag shaped threads as you can see here in the 1st picture. These are called stabilimenta. It is believed that these are spun to prevent birds from flying into the web and ruining all that beautiful work!

These critters can bite and leave a slight sting and itch on the victim, though they are not particularly dangerous.

By the way, Ruth Less is an ogre-faced, net casting spider, not an Arigope.

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