A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
nephila pilipes
A yellow spider, commonly found in primary and secondary forests and gardens. Females are large and grow to a body size of 30-50 mm (overall size upto 20 cm), with males growing to 5–6 mm. It is one of the biggest spiders in the world. The Nephila pilipes' web is vertical with a fine irregular mesh and not symmetrical, with the hub is usually nearer the top. Rather than egg sacks being hung in the web, a pit is dug which is then covered with plant debris or soil.
Nephila pilipes is a species of golden orb-web spider. It can be found in Japan, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Papua New Guinea, and Northern Australia. Seen at the Kanha National Park.
Courtney I had read it somewhere that the male is smaller in size, I searched wiki for your reply and here it is: Golden orb-weavers reach sizes of 4.8 - 5.1 cm (1.5 - 2 in) in females, not including legspan, with males being usually 2/3 smaller (less than 2.5 cm, 1 in). You could also see on the same page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk... that there is a picture of a female surrounded by many small males. So the small spider should be the male.
Spotted on Oct 18, 2011
Submitted on Oct 21, 2011
+1
