South Florida Spider. Please help ID

[thiagobruch]

I find this spider often around my house (garage and yard).

I believe it is a Garden Orb Spider, but I'm not sure.

My wife is terrified of spider, and it would be great if somebody that undertands help me on that.
Specially saying if it is venomous or not.

The picture was taken on July 15 2012.
I live in Boca Raton, South Florida.

Thank you.

[Whitlock]

Hey there thiagobruch,

You can rest your wifes nerves, this is not a dangerous spider at all. It's actually a great bit of free pest control and will do all it can to keep the mosquitoes and gnats from bothering you.

As for the species, all I can say is that it is indeed an orb weaver, family Araneidae. A shot from the other side of the spider might help for further ID. As for the name "garden orb weaver", I think that common name is used by many different people for many different spiders.

[Mandy]

Looks like the underside of an Eriophora ravilla (nicknamed the "Tropical Orbweaver"). They are fairly common in Florida and build very large, round webs. Like nearly every spider on Earth, they do possess venom glands and tiny fangs, but they are only dangerous to the insects they eat, not to humans.

Here's a link to the rest of our threads that also have Eriophora ravilla in them: http://www.spiders.us/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=33. They can be variable in color and pattern. Some have white or green on their top side and others are just plain orange.

As for the name "garden orb weaver", I think that common name is used by many different people for many different spiders.

Yep! I'm glad you mentioned that. :-)