Yellow garden spider

My neighbor showed me this spider in his tomato plants. The abdomen was the size of a small cherry tomato. Pretty big sucker, being just over 2" long legs and all. The markings are stunning.

Haven't seen one of those since I was a kid.
Nice pics.

nice, my dad gets these all over his garden....apparently they weave the thick zig-zag so birds can see the web and avoid it, saving the spider the work of having to rebuild so frequently.....thats what I've read, anywho.

We have the all around the house. I even have to watch out for the really big ones if they get too close to the humming bird feeders. I have found a couple of humming birds in the webs before. Very cool looking spiders...

When I was a kid, we would throw grasshoppers in their webs. Cheap entertainment.

I heard another theory that the zigzag is fluorescent and attracts insects. As insects get wise to it, they weave a new pattern. Saw a video of this in action that was pretty convincing, but my ability to communicate with arachnids is greatly diminished with my new medication.

I feel a bit better now! We did the same damm thing, with crickets and fireflies!!

I believe it's an Orb Weaver. Lots of different varieties.
I feed mine small moths, I want it outside and happy, not inside and hungry.
edit- My spider has the same markings as the Predator's head. It looks really creepy after dark.

Yep, Orb weaver looks correct too. There are several different names they go by.

My Grandma told me that if you saw yours, or anyones, initials in the web, that meant you, or they, were going to die soon. Glad my names don't start with V or W.

The one you have there looks rather well fed or pregnant.

jc

Today I went out looking for my spiders and all but one are gone...and he has a couple of legs missing. What eats them?
Birds or maybe Bats?

I was at my neighbors looking for his too. I could not find it anywhere. The zig zag in the web had faded and was not so clear and vibrant.