Spider identification This red spider has set up a web in my yard, in South Eastern, Texas, United States: !Spider 1 !Spider 2 The spider itself is about an inch long (2.5 cm), and is predominantly red to brown in color, with red legs, and a very striking white line straight down the center of her back. The web is quite large--at least 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter. It seems to be nocturnal, as I haven't seen it during the day, yet I've walked into the web (or nearly walked into its web) twice at night. Unfortunately, due to lighting conditions I wasn't able to capture the color particularly well. I've searched but haven't found a species that looks like this yet.

After some more searching, I think stumbled across the answer. It appears to be an…

# _Eriophora ravilla_ :

!Eriophora ravilla !Eriophora ravilla

Source BugGuide.net.

This species appears to have quite a diverse range of colors, and even thought I haven't found one that quite matches mine, the other similarities (the large abdomen, the stripe down the back, the four 'dimples', and the dark first leg segments) are enough to convince me. However, if anyone else can shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it.