It was a dragon fly that caught my eye and brought me to the area; I was following him around trying to get a picture when I found the spiders. The dragon fly got away, and luckily the spiders aren’t as tricky to photograph.

I found three black-and-yellow argiopes. The things are apparently common in North and Central America, but this was my first encounter with one in 26 years.

Argiope aurantia on Animal Diversity Web

Picture 1: Looking at the top of the spider

Picture 2: They look particularly mean from the bottom