How cool, nice picture! But I still don't like spiders! LOL!

I'm with Linda! Spiders aren't favorites, but they're still better than snakes! But it is an interesting picture.

Question, how do you know it's a female?

It's an argiope, one of my fav spiders, who don't play around with any ambiguity between the sexes. The females are definitely the largest and most attractively marked. The males non-descript and small.

Thanks Susie. I knew she was a female, but couldn't quite explain how I knew.

I used to have many in my garden, and once one made a web right by my window, so I could watch her at work, it was fascinating.