What species is this?

[zulu]

Hi! My friend was on a safari in Namibia near Swakopmund not so long ago and he pictured me a spider. He sais that this is some very venomous species. A local man said that to him. So I would like to find out what spcies is this spider, and is it so venomous as my friend told me? The picture is below. Tnx!

http://www.akvarij.net/forum/uploads/zulu/pauk_mini.JPG

[psionix]

i have no clue what it is or how dangerous but that is a cool pic.

...and i really wouldn't want to get bit by an African true spider.

[Spaceman_Spiff]

From the ventral side it looks alot like the southeuropean Argiope lobata, maybe they occur in tanzania?
Argiope sp. for sure!
Got any dorsal shots (the upside)?

Argiope sp. are completely harmless btw!

greets
Bernhard

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Doublechecked it, according to platnick Argiope lobata has an oldworld- distribution, so my guess is not to unlikely.
http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/ARANEIDAE.html

Dorsal-pictures would help a lot, though!

[zulu]

Sorry this is the only pic I've got. Actually it's from Namibia, not Tanzania.
Seems that the local guy was messin' around with my friend. Tnx anyway! 8)