Here is some info on them for those that have arachnophobia and are afraid to touch one on the back. Basically when you touch them on the back, you can use a small twig if you can't bring your self to do it, they will start osolating the web back and forth very rapidly.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Argiope_aurantia.html Big frog I must still have a lot of kid in me because I too spend a lot of time feeding mine grasshoppers, it's amazing to watch them attack and spin their web around a kicking grasshopper and render him helpless.
The only thing more fun is throwing the grasshopper on a fly rod and watching one of my catfish render him helpless.
