just delivered a load outside of chicago, this beast was building a relatively small orb web next to the dock. no exaggeration, it was a good 4 inches across the legs. didn't know spiders got that big that far north
the web had a line about two feet long, but the net area was only about 8 inches diameter
Apparently argiope aurantia, yellow garden spider.
my neighbor
>>325321it did start building the white zigzag but stopped halfway. that and the facts that it moved very slow and had such a small web leads me to believe it didn't have long to live