It looks like a wolf spider of some kind. One way to tell between wolf spiders and fishing spiders is to look at the positions of the eyes. To me, it does not look like a carolina wolf spider Hogna carolinensis, but maybe. You might try an ID request on bugguide.net. I don't think that you need to be worried about it. Just don't try to handle it. Brian

Thanks Jean, He is living on my patio plants---knowing a little more about him, makes him a little less scary. Thanks again. Connie

If we could see a good image of the top of the spider, we could narrow it down even further for you....Genus and species. But knowing that it is one of the many beautiful Argiope spiders is really all that's important.

What? I didn't know there was a false Widow spider. I would have killed it in an instant. We have the real thing here. Black widow spiders and juveniles. If you live in an area that has these spiders, you need to know what the juveniles look like. I have killed at least 60 of them. Thank God I never got bit by one. They love to be between my nursery pots.