Gasteracantha cancriformis

Gasteracantha cancriformis, the spinybacked orbweaver, is a spider in the orb-weaver family Araneidae, widely distributed across the New World from North America through Central America, the Caribbean and South America, and introduced to Hawaii and other locations. Females measure 5 to 9 millimeters in body length and 10 to 13 millimeters wide, with a black carapace, legs and underside marked with white spots, and an upper abdomen of white or yellow bearing black spotting and six abdominal spine-like projections, red or black on white individuals and black only on yellow ones. Males are much smaller, at 2 to 3 millimeters, with a gray, white-spotted abdomen and four or five reduced, stubby spines. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek words for belly and thorn, and the species name from Latin words for crab and shape, describing its distinctive spiny, crab-like form. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/