I almost walked by this one. If she hadn't moved just so slightly I wouldn't have even noticed her perched on the acorn. Kismet.

lemme tell ya. Very patient and most courteous moving into good shooting positions for me. She (I assume it is female) would make a great model for Vogue. Are these spiders somewhat rare? I found little of anything about them.

...but I have previously read that they are considered a neotropical spider, so I guess I sort of assumed that they would be tougher to find for us in the US. I guess Georgia is pretty far south, though. There's 3 or 4 species in the US, depending on where you read. Maybe there's little info available on them because they are rare? If you think in that sense, then you've found a wonderful find in my opinion! You probably saw some of the others in the guide? Isn't it crazy how some of them have a 'Jesus' face on the back?!

put my finger on what it was that made me take the pic of the back, but it looked intriguing for some reason. Now, I know. Annnnd, we do get a number of near tropical and tropical visitors of all kinds around here, particularly birds. It would not be a stretch for insects to show up now and again. Thanks, Mandy.

I wish I knew more about these beauts. They are Orb Weavers by taxonomic category, so I would assume that they build orb webs...but in the 20 or so photos of them on BugGuide, not one of them is in a web. They are all perched on some form of a flat surface. Weird. Maybe some of the spider experts will chime in with some info?