Endemic Orbweaver from Kauai: Argiope avara kauaiensis

Subject: Hawaiian Argiope
Location: Waimea Canyon, Hawaii (Kauai)
December 2, 2014 12:13 am
Hi, I have another photo of the large Argiope spiders that seem to be as-yet-unidentified – this one was in a web at Waimea canyon. Photo taken 11/29/14.
If you happen to come up with an ID for this critter, please e-mail me!
-DavidR
Signature: Hawaiian nature nerd

Dear Hawaiian nature nerd,
This particular Argiope species, which we first posted in 2007, has still not been identified.  Due to the remote location of these Argiope sightings, we suspect this is a species endemic to the island, which is something of a rarity in 21st Century Hawaii which has so many introduced species.  We did a search and found a YouTube video identifying Argiope avara kauaiensis as a native species.  We also located an images on Spiders.us and Google Plus.  These are all newer posings than our original posting from 2007.