Australian Golden Orb WeaverFemale Male Dimorphic Males Juvenile to Mature Female Moult Prey Web of Sex Egg Sac Web
The female Australian Golden Orb Weaver is a spectacular spider, whose body size is variability, with a body length that can reach up to 40 millimetres in length and legs that extend from the body, with a span up to 10 centimetres.
The following is a young female, body size 1.5 centimetres from tip of the abdomen to the head, with the legs from top to bottom spanning 5 centimetres.
The cephalothorax (the fused head and thorax of the spider) is black with a white pattern on the back, and a yellow marking on the underside. The abdomen is grey to brown.
The web of this genus of spider Trichonephila usually contain a string of debris masses which are the remains of insects the spider has eaten and may be saving for later. This tendency to produce such a string is rare among orb weaver species and is a useful identification feature.
One of the disadvantages for the female of this species is that being large they are also considered an edible spider, not only by birds and other creatures, but also by certain indigenous people. In places like New Guinea, they are lightly roasted over an open fire before being eaten.
The abdomen of this large female Golden Orb Weaver Spider was approximately 2 centimetres in length.
A distinctive characteristic of the female Australian Golden Orb Weaver are the hairs that look like black brushes along the legs.
Whilst they are not gregarious, you will sometimes find several spiders of the Australian Golden Orb Weaver Spiders in the same area. This female was in a web less then a metre from the female spider shown above.
This female Australian Golden Orb Weaver has survived with seven legs.
You can see more images of the Golden Orb on our Birthday Waterhole Fauna page; our Golden Orb – Alice Springs Desert Park page and our Fauna Spiders section – Australian Golden Orb Weaver Spider.
Also check out our blog… A tangled web…
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Chelicerata
- Class: Arachnida
- Order: Araneae
- Infraorder: Araneomorphae
- Family: Araneidae
- Genus: Trichonephila
- Species: T. edulis
- Binomial name: Trichonephila edulis
- Synonyms:
- Aranea edulis
- Epeira edulis
- Nephila edulis
- Nephila imperatrix
- Nephila eremiana
Australian Golden Orb WeaverFemale Male Dimorphic Males Juvenile to Mature Female Moult Prey Web of Sex 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