What spider is this? Is it dangerous to humans? **What is the species? Is it dangerous to humans?** I chanced upon this beautiful one near our water well. It stood at a height where an adult could accidentally walk through the web and the spider would land on one's face. As a test, I dropped a piece of leaf onto its web, and the spider jumped to action, checking what it was and it took out the leaf from its web. **Size:** Web, almost circular 50 cm diameter. Spider, about 8cm. **Location:** Malabar region, Kerala state, south of India ![a close-up]( ![from location](

This is most likely a spider from the genus _Argiope)_ , which has a few members native to India. See here for a list, I think this is most likely _Argiope pulchella_ , see the image from the Wikipedia:

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Wikipedia#Bite) also says that these spiders hunt insects, but are not dangerous for humans.