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FAMILY NEPHILIDAE
- This page contains pictures and information of Golden Orb Web Spiders that
we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Leg to leg up to 100mm, female, notice the small male on the upper side of
the web.
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- The Golden Orb Web Spider is the
largest spider species that we found in Brisbane. They are common in bushes and
gardens. They build very large and strong yellow silk orb web, which is vertical or slightly
inclined, usually in high or very high positions.
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- Their web is often
strengthened by supporting silk on either side. Those supporting lines are
also used to hang the consumed corpses of the spider. Under the sun their webs are golden in colour.
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  -
- The Golden
Orb Web Spider is diurnal spider. The spider is brown to dark brown in colour.
They have very long legs, all black with yellow joints. Their first, second and fourth pairs of legs have a
brush of bristles on the tibia. The third pair of legs is the shortest with no
brush. The abdomen is long oval shaped and is yellow with grey or brown
patterns. Their head is covered with silver hairs. The fangs are large and strong.
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- The spider feeds on insects caught
in the web. Do you know how
spiders learn to build webs?
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Male
  -
- The females are largest spider while the males are only
about 1/10 of the female size.
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Capture Prey
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- The pictures show the spider just captured a grasshopper (Macrotona
mjoebergi).
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Unlike the spiders in Araneidae family which first wrap their prey in silk after capture and then bites it, Golden Orb Web spider
bites the prey first and then wrap with silk.
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- The spider captured a cicada (Tamasa
tristigma, 1st picture) and a beetle (Diaphonia
dorsalis, 2n picture).
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Egg-sac
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- Golden Orb Web Spider makes
egg sac with golden silk hided in near by on leaves or twists during early winter.
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- Drawing by Tony, age 7..
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- Reference:
- 1. Wildlife
of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum 1995, p29.
- 2. Coastal
golden orb-weaver - The
Find-a-spider Guide for Australian Spiders, University of Southern
Queensland, 2007.
- 3. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson
1969, p69.
- 4. Australian Spiders in colour - Ramon Mascord, Reed Books Pty
Ltd, 1970, p74 (Nephila edulis).
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