Korean Golden Orb Web Spider: mating and solo

bugman

December 13th, 2005 at 1:00 am

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bug love

Spider
I too like many others “fell upon” your site, and after enjoying the photos and interesting info remembered that I have a spider without an ID. I took this in the fall of 03 while I was attending a retreat on the east side of the country South Korea. During my 2 months there I got a chance to observe these spiders. They didn’t seem too active, but one of them went through about 4 mates before she got “hitched”. No one there new what kind they were but there were 8 of them around the front yard. The webs were around 3-4 feet in diameter and spread from tree to tree. I have never been interested in spiders but these ones caught me in their web. Please help me put a name to my new friends.
Thanks Mari Baerman
Bucheon, South Korea

Hi Mari,
What wonderful photos of Nephila clavata, the Golden Orb Web Spider. We have one spider in this genus in the U.S. called the Golden Silk Spider, Nephila clavipes. We are wondering if the common name for the Korean spider also refers to the color of the silk. Our species also has the drastic size difference between the diminutive male and the female who can be as much as 100 times his weight.