Meet the Golden Orb Weaving Spider

Article | Updated 8 years ago

The female Golden Orb Weaving Spider certainly is a fearsome looking arachnid, and can grow up to 4cm in length. The good news is that they’re harmless to humans. It will still hurt if one bites you, though! Her male counterpart is tiny, measuring in at a maximum size of 6mm. Imagine if your mum was over four times the size of your dad! 

The Web  

This spider lives all over Australia, and can often be found spinning a web out of yellow-coloured silk.

A Golden Orb Weaving Spider’s web can be up to one metre in diameter – this spider needs a spacious home, as it never leaves its web! 

Food!

This species of orb-weaving spider is an opportunistic feeder, which means they will devour any suitable prey unlucky enough to be caught in the huge, sticky web. They can be fussy, though, and are known to reject certain types of beetle, butterfly, ant and wasp that aren’t very tasty. 

Once prey is caught in the web, the spider must hunt it; after all, it could still escape! It finds out how big the prey is by vibrating the silk strands of its web. Once the spider knows this information, it can decide on the best way to attack. The female spider can deal with insects larger and heavier than herself. Imagine trying to manhandle something bigger than you! (A giant spider, perhaps?)  

But what do Golden Orb Weaving Spiders do when there isn’t any prey around to catch? When food is plentiful, these resourceful spiders construct food caches. That way, when times get tough, they can chow down on their pre-filled pantry! Is this the squirrel of the spider world? 

Breeding

Reproduction can be a dangerous time for the male Golden Orb Weaving Spider (remember, he is much smaller than the female!). If he is lucky, the female will allow him to mate with her, and she will then produce egg sacs holding, on average, 380 eggs. That’s a lot of baby spiders!