They're venomous, they're as big the palm of your hand, and they're spreading fast in the United States.
They are called Jorō spiders, and they're the latest invasive species to hit American shores. Granted, the Jorō spider is indeed an impressive, even frightening specimen: they have a striped exoskeleton that takes on a number of hues — bright yellows, pitch blacks, softer grays, with blue patches on their spindly legs — and their webs, in the sunlight, can appear like shimmering gold because of the thread coloring. They are indigenous to southeast Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan, but through unknown means have entered the southeastern United States as an invasive species.
