Golden orb spider

[RobertBrown]

It's a cellphone pic.......
It's hard to see how big this, lets just say you wouldn't want him crawling across your face.
These things are everywhere here. If you walk through the swamp looking down like I do, sooner or later it's going to happen.

 

[creekbend]

When I lived and worked in Florida-20+years, we always called them "Banana spiders". I never knew the true name of the species until now. Thanks for posting. I am aware of one detail in regards to this spider though. If you place your hands on both sides of that spider and clap your hands together fast and hard, there is a yellowish matter that is expelled from it internally. The end results is yellow "Goop" being splattered all over your body.

 

[Depmandog]

That thing looks huge!! Can you give us s perspective on its size? It looks like it's 4 - 5" long....

YIKES!!

 

[JDgreen227]

Amazing pictures, thanks for sharing them. Can you imagine how women who are terrified of spiders an inch long would react when they saw something like this?

 

[RobertBrown]

That thing looks huge!! Can you give us s perspective on its size? It looks like it's 4 - 5" long....

YIKES!!

The abdomin is about 1.5" long and .5"around. the whole spider is about 3" long.
They are called "orb weavers" because they leave golden strands in the center of thier webs. The webs are very strong, strong enough to catch fish..........