Golden Orb Weaver Prey

Golden Orb Weaver PreyBee Butterfly Dragonfly Fly Gecko Lizard Tail Shield Bug

Australian Golden Orb WeaverFemale Male Dimorphic Males Juvenile to Mature Female Moult Prey Web of Sex Egg Sac Web

When you see a large web of the Australian Golden Orb Weaver Spider (Trichonephila edulis), you will no doubt see also their pantry… a construction of food caches that usually rise above the central hub of the web. The caches will vary in size, and be made up of a variety of captured prey. Large caches can contain numerous prey items from 12 and more of these food parcels.

Each food parcel / cache is densely wrapped in silk and placed in the growing line of food caches. It is thought that the silk wrapping may reduce the dehydration of the prey.

Australian Golden Orb Weaver Spider are said to be opportunistic, in that they feed on any prey that get caught in their web. They are however known to be selective predators, in that they will selectively avoid or remove certain insects from their web. These include certain species of wasps, “certain “unpalatable” butterflies, winged ants, and a variety of “obnoxious” groups of insects such as beetles that produce distasteful secretions.¹

Insects often found in their web and as food parcels include flies, grasshoppers, bees, moths and cicadas. Sometimes they will devour a fresh prey after immobilising it.

The male Australian Golden Orb Weaver Spider also feed on prey that have been caught in the web, although they do tend to stay out of the reach of the female.

When small prey are caught in the web, the Australian Golden Orb Weaver just “seized and removed” it from the web, either consuming it straight away or storing it with the other food caches. Large prey are bitten by the spider, who then waits for the venom to subdue the prey before it is wrapped in silk and moved into the line of the food pantry.

In the following titled video…

This is my Trichonephila edulis girl. I call her Missy Elliott.

If you look at the prey she’s happily chewing on you’ll see it’s covered in what I presume are some kind of fly maggots.

It’s the first time I’ve seen this. Now its not like prey items normally sit around long enough for flies to lay their eggs etc. So I’m thinking that the prey was already parasitised and the maggots are abandoning ship before they too become spider soup.

Weird Stuff. Kingaroy QLD.

© Iskander Kaliananda

---

---

Golden Orb Weaver PreyBee Butterfly Dragonfly Fly Gecko Lizard Tail Shield Bug

Australian Golden Orb WeaverFemale Male Dimorphic Males Juvenile to Mature Female Moult Prey Golden Orb and the Bee Golden Orb and the Butterfly Golden Orb and the Dragonfly Golden Orb and the Fly Golden Orb and the Gecko Golden Orb and the Lizard Tail Golden Orb and the Shield Bug Web of Sex Whilst She is Distracted Whilst She is Distracted Again Egg Sac Web

SpidersIndex of Spider Images Spiders in Australia Araneidae — Orb Weavers Arkys Australian Huntsman Spider Barking Spider Black House Spider Carepalxis sp Celaenia sp Crab Spiders Deinopidae — Net-casting Spiders Dolomedes sp Dolophones sp Flower Spiders Hackled Orbweavers (Uloboridae) Jewel Spider Jumping Spider Long Jawed Spider (Tetragnatha sp) Lynx Spider (Oxyopes) Mangrovia albida Maratus volans Missulena occatoria (Red-headed Mouse Spider) Miturgidae Nicodamidae (Red and Black Spider) Ogre-faced Net-casting Spider Poltys sp (Twig Spider) Redback Spider Scorpion-tailed Spider (Arachnura higginsi) Thomisidae Tiger Spider (Trichonephila plumipes) White-spotted Swift Spider (Nyssus albopunctatus) Wolf Spider