Can you identify this spider for me?

I am behind on my game here...

i could have taken that hidey hole comment and RAN with it..

its all fun and games until he carries me up the stairs like a bowling ball..

I thought that's when the fun begins?!

Mr. Wolf, the man born with 24 penises, spent his entire life looking for the perfect woman.

Then....shewolf came along.

now he is down to 2...

This spider is Gasteracanthus cancriformis.

Cool spider pics. I showed them to my Dad and he knew just what it was. According to him there is a name change from what was originally posted a month or so ago. Apparently the accepted name is Gastercantha elipsoides - used to be called
G. cancriformos. Oh yea he knows spiders, because he's worked as a Biologist for a couple of decades I guess. Should be a male around (much smaller than the female in your pictures) may be you'll have little ones.

i have seen smaller ones. They are not as colorful and have a slightly diffrent ' shell shape' then the larger ones.
I have also seen babies.
The 'shells' on their backs are clear and you can see the black of their bodies.
Amazing!!

omg!
my grandmother passed away on sat...me and my fam were out at her house today after tha funeral...my cousin yelled at me to come look at this spider she found on tha golf cart...i took it and showed everyone and no one had ever seen one before...so i brought it home and was lookin on google and found your post...its tha same dang spider...how odd and weird that is! i am so curious to find out what kind of spider it is...have u found anything out yet? i was thinkin about takin it to the Baylor Science Foundation to have them check it out!

by the way, my spider is white and black.

I found this about a spiny orb weaver - although I have always called it a crab spider...

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IN324

BTW...I have serious willies now...ew.

We have spiders like the one in the original post, at the apartments. I have somtimes wondered about them, but never investigated before.

I have since seen MANY more.
I have even seen the older ones spin thier webs.
They have amazing dark... well.. thicker.. spots on thier webs that act like a reinforcement.

The webs flap in the breeze and are set up to catch flying bugs and not crawling ones.

I say that because they are always really high off the ground, and spread between two trees, or branches, bushes or what have you.
Unlike other spiders who make thier webs close to the ground to catch any type of bug.

Another thing I have noticed they do - I guess to frighten off intruders is - they vibrate their webs...kind of thump it...it's amazing...and it works for me...I leave...

yeah.. any spider that sees me coming and decides to scare me, can do it.

I love the large beautiful yellow and black ones here in texas, but jesuschrist... they scare the hell out of me.

Im ok if I am about 10 feet or more away and the thing DOES NOT MOVE.
then they are just a pretty sculpture.
They move, and i crap my pants..

this spider is so wired
this is one koo spider i had never seen some thing like this ... my sister is moving into a appt. and we found one just like that one out side... we have it in a container im trying to research it but i cant find anything for it so if any one knows what this spiders name is pls write back ... i tried taking pictures but they come out blury so im not posting them but it is so wired... !!!!

pls write back if you know anything about this spider...!!![

?????
does any one know if these spiders are poisoness ...????

crab spider
[B live in central texas. about three years ago these spiders started
showing up all over my property. Do not think they are poisonous. But they do bite causing itching followed by a welt similar to a mosquito bite.
They welt went away with 24 hrs. Contacted TAMIU in Laredo no one seems to know what these spiders are called. Oh by the way if you leave them alone they do grow. I have seen them as big as a nickle and it seems that they come in shades of yellow, red , orage, black. They favor the mesquites around my property, but they are all over the place. My son an I have been watching them and it also seems that they begin spinning their webs by forming a triagular pattern which becomes a circular web right in the middle. Very weird.