Spiny-backed spider

Description:

This colorful orb weaver's body is about an inch wide and adorned with bumps and spots. Out of the web, it moves fairly slowly.

Habitat:

Tropical rainforest garden.

Notes:

Apparently these were, like so many other plants and creatures in Hawaii, visitors that never left and multiplied like crazy. The blue-sky picture has dots: they're the dozens of these spiders hanging over everywhere. You have to swing a palm frond or stick in front and above you everywhere you walk or risk getting these spiders on you--and they bite!