NOT FOR ARACHNOPHOBIC: what spider is this?

Hmmm could be a southern cross spider??? can always tell by the way they form their legs....just like a cross or x ..... Does it have stripes on it's body? i'm not 100%

Hi tobytot

You don't say where you are, but it looks like you're lucky enough to have a beautiful Golden Orb Weaver take up residence with you. These spiders build permanent webs that are buttressed with smaller webbing at the side to make them nice and strong. It looks like she's been busy collecting things from the supply of 'rubbish' she has in her web

Look closely and you may see a much smaller male spider living on the outskirts of her web, or even hiding behind her.

Several birds will eat them and they also fall prey to certain parasitic wasps. They themselves will take a lot of flying insects, including many that would be considered pests in your garden. It has even been reported that they will take small birds as prey when they become trapped in the strong webs!

We have several in our garden, two big females who've been living in our cat enclosure for several months are called Gloria and Gaynor. We check on them everyday and have watched them steadily get fatter!

Absolutely beautiful creatures - enjoy them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver

I keep them as pets...

They are harmless and will play dead when you pick them up...

The males have a "banjo" body and short tail. They bow the web like a gentle harp. They can't see very far but will build a web from house to front fence if they can. There is one such web across the road, it spans 7 meters and is as high as the roof line. I went down the creek specifically to look for them recently. I found one every 10 meters. People were walking past them and would never notice. Several spanned the creek itself (go and work out how). The creek there is wide. I would guess about 14 meters or so. She made the orb in the middle. She had to make two lines. One for the upper part and one for the lower part. The upper part attached to two trees on either side of the creek. The lower one attached to grasses on one side.

From there she could build a orbital web in a 3 dimensional space and she did this right in the middle of the creek above the water. Simply amazing, graceful and elegant but the architecture and physics is superb. People can't even think of things like this.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitchdonov ... 128161910/

Yes - very lucky!

You can go all the way up to her and stick your nose right close to see her - she won't hurt you. Golden Orb Weavers are very reluctant to bite and certainly not menacing, hence Redman saying you can hold one in your hand very safely. Personally, I'd wear gloves if I did because a bite would make you feel ill if it did happen.

Our 'pet' orb weavers have been in the same webs for months now and I've never seen them move more than one leg. Even then only because I blew on them to see if they were actually alive! However, today I noticed that Gloria had moved position a little and is now facing north-west instead of due north. Not sure why she made the change, but it made her more difficult to photograph and I'm bad enough at that as it is!



Anyway, her body, excluding head (and legs obviously!) is about 3cm long. Her legs are goodness knows how long - it's a bit difficult to get in there to measure them without disturbing her web, or Gaynor's (you can see her at the back to the left of the pic - she is a little smaller, but in this pic she's just further away... ). I took this so you could see how secured her web is, with all the side webbing around it. Cleaning out the cats poo pit is a bit more interesting since they moved in as you're constantly trying not to damage the web (you can feel how strong it is when you do).

Fantastic spiders and very efficient at keeping the flies and mosquitoes down that would otherwise plague our cats!

Gloria did have a male on the edge of her web, waiting for his chance, but I suspect he was too slow for her as he's now disappeared!

I have seen these amazing, beautiful creatures span a web. Never knew how they did it till now. They dangle a line of web and it will waft in the breeze. Whent hey do it, they themselves will dangle and spread out to help catch the breeze. But they stay put and the breeze sends the web out and they sometimes spin more web as it gets going on a good breeze. Once it catches onto something they'll crawl along it carrying a second web and get some tension happening, Then go back out to the middle of the central web.

So if they put a web over the wrong place for you in the garden, just get a broom, break the anchor and move the anchoring web. Sometimes they put it back and if you keep moving it they get cranky and move spots altogether.

My spider is out from backyard now.

Its web was destroyed because of strong wind blew away the leaves where it was anchored.
I found the spider under the palm, hanging on a little left over of the web.
I took a little stick, with gloves and a bucket. Holding my breath, I poked the spider so it fell into the bucket. It immediately curled up and laid still on its back in the bucket... very cute
IT WAS THAT CUTE THAT I WONDER WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF !
It didn't climb out from the bucket... it didn't run around like a mad bull... it just crawled slowly in there.
I hate those spiders that crawl very fast. When I was a kid, there was big spider that crawl over my foot in a blink of an eye. I didn't even have time to jump away ... since then I always scared of them

I took it out, and release it to the neighbour nature strip. There is a tree for it to make a new web there.

To be honest, I think I'm going to miss it
Once I finish my backyard, I hope I can find it and keep it again.