There were two of these giant spiders on the Bloodberry bushes where I was photographing butterflies.

I haven't quite figured out what this spider is yet. It's an Argiope something, I'm sure about that part. The Argiope argentata is similar, and I think this spider is one, but the Argiope blanda is supposed to resemble the Argiope argentata, so I can't say for sure. If you can, please email me. Whichever Agriope it is, it is a BIG spider!

In the web above you can see two silk wrapped meals the spider has stuck in its web. The spider appears to be either wrapping or eating the middle meal.

This is a closer view of the spiders head and meal.

In this photograph of the Silver Argiope spider and web, you can see four areas of the classic garden orb weaver zig-zag web design patterns. One of those (singular) is called stabilimentum, and more than one are called stabilimenta.

Pronunciation: 'web design (s)'.