Garden Orb Weaver

Description:

Large spider with rounded bulbous abdomen

Habitat:

This is the daylight rest of the spider. She went back to same place for the whole time she lived in the garden and during the day rebuilt her 2m+ sticky wheel web where she would hang and wait for passing prey. This area in beneath the tree and along a fence between two properties. The leaves in the image are 100mm or 4" long so some idea of her size is given. The rest was a clump of leaves stuck together and she slept outside. The rest was about 3m from her normal web position

Notes:

This garden was made as friendly and undisturbed as possible for about six years while we attempted to record the spiders that could be found on a 1/4 acre sea side block in the suburbs