While visiting a Land for Wildlife property at Mount Mellum in May, we stumbled across an unusual sight while walking along a path. We were in the right spot at the right time and were lucky enough to see one of nature’s wonders. There was a curled up Native Rosella (Hibiscus heterophyllus) leaf that caught our attention, and upon closer inspection it revealed that the leaf was home to hundreds of tiny, moving animals! They were hard to identify and spotting the unusual formation raised more questions than could be answered straight away.
The Queensland Museum solved the mystery by revealing they were newly hatched Golden Orb-Weaver spiderlings and the egg sack had hatched 2-3 days previously. When the cluster of approximately 380 spiderlings emerge from the egg sack, they stay together for a few days before they leave the nest one by one and head into the big, wide world by themselves when they’re ready to feed and make webs of their own.
Humped Golden Orb-weaver. Photos by Greg Tasney.
There are three species of Golden Orb-weaver spiders in Australia and all are found in SEQ:
- Giant Golden Orb-weaver (Nephila pilipes)
- Humped Golden Orb-weaver (Trichonephila plumipes)
- Australian Golden Orb-weaver (Trichonephila edulis)
The female of all species is much bigger than the male who is a tiny 4-5mm. The male often sits on the edge of the web waiting for the right moment to mate. He needs to choose his moment carefully as the female spiders often eat the males after copulation.
Giant Golden Orb-weaver. Photos by Matthew Lazzaro.
After mating, the female spider builds an egg sack out of golden silk for her 400 or so eggs to go into and puts it in a safe place by attaching it to a discreet position such as in a curled-up leaf or in a sprig of twigs. The egg sack stays in place for 30-60 days, whilst the female spider often dies shortly after laying the eggs. These amazing spiders have a short life span of approximately one year.
Australian Golden Orb-weaver. Photos by Dee Hulton-Smith (left) and Pete Woodall.
Golden Orb-Weaving spiders are found in warm areas in dry open forests and woodlands, coastal sand dune shrubland and mangroves in Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, South America, southern USA and southern Africa. These spiders have large, extremely strong webs. They build their vertical webs of golden silk between trees and shrubs, hoping insects will fly into them. They predominantly prey on flies, beetles, moths and cicadas but occasionally small birds or bats get trapped and the spider happily feeds on these as well. The web is so strong that people in South Pacific use the web as fishing line and fishing lures.
These spiders are very docile and often drop from their golden web if threatened. They are not dangerous to humans or animals and play a beneficial role in catching and eating insects and maintaining healthy ecosystems.
Large webs of Humped and Australian Golden Orb-weaving spiders are a common sight across SEQ in summer.
Article by Rhonda Bordonaro
Land for Wildlife Officer
Sunshine Coast Council