Itsy Bitsy Big Ass Spider
Posted on October 16, 2007 3:06 PM.
The entry before this one was Bad Blogger! No Doughnut. and the next one is The Wonderful Gift.
The venom of the Orb Weaver is potent, but not dangerous to humans. Its venom is a neurotoxin similar to that of the black widow. However, its venom is not near as potent. Its bite causes local pain and redness with blisters forming. This bite usually resolves within 24 hours except for the bite mark. They only bite when provoked aggressively.
The silk of N. clavipes has recently been used to help in mammalian neuronal regeneration. Experiments showed that a single thread of silk can lead a severed neuron the way inside the body to the site where it was severed from. With a tensile strength of 4×109 N/m, it exceeds that of steel by a factor of six. It is not recognized by the immune system and has antibacterial properties.
Some "Golden silk orb-weavers" display an almost manic fear of cockroaches (palmetto bugs!). The cockroach's fast movements and large, dark shape cause some of these spiders to run from or ignore a perfectly delectable meal. "Golden silk orb-weavers" are known to sometimes be cannibalistic with spiders that are even their same size.
Typically she first weaves a non-sticky spiral with space for 2-20 more spirals in between (the density of sticky spiral strands decreases with increasing spider size). When she has completed the coarse weaving, she returns and fills in the gaps. Whereas most orb-weaving spiders remove the non-sticky spiral when spinning the sticky spiral, Nephila leave it. This produces a "music paper" effect when the orb is seen in the sun: groups of sticky spirals reflecting light with "gaps" where the non-sticky spiral does not reflect the light.
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The entry before this one was Bad Blogger! No Doughnut. and the next one is The Wonderful Gift.
I discovered this beauty a couple of weeks ago outside my office window. She's a big 'un. I'd guess her body alone is just under 3 inches and total leg spread right around 5. The pictures were taken through my dirty window with her about 4 feet away. Turns out she's a Nephila clavipes or golden silk spider.
I intended on putting her down after Halloween. But after some research, I've decided to let her stay around as long as she'd like. Here's some interesting facts...