Subject: spinyback orbweaver spider from Brazil
Location: Curitiba, Parana, Brazil
April 10, 2013 4:59 pm
Hey there,
I have been looking in the Internet for some hours now and couldn’t find out which orbweaver spider I have found here in our local park…
I saw that some other orbweavers from Brazil have been identified here…so…let’s give it a try =D
(I hope the one picture is sufficient!)
Greetings,
Signature: by Danny

Spiny Orbweaver

Dear Danny,
We haven’t the time to research this at this moment, but we are posting your lovely image of a Spiny Orbweaver.  We hope to get a species or genus name for you soon, though we suspect it is in the genus Micrathena, which is represented on BugGuide.  It might even be a species represented on BugGuide that has a southern coloration.

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Subject: spider
Location: costa rica
March 25, 2013 3:36 am
a beautyfull spider with green body
Signature: fred from belgium

Orbweaver

Hi Fred,
This is an Orbweaver in the family Araneidae, but alas, we cannot provide a species identification for you.  It looks similar to the North American species pictured on BugGuide,  Verrucosa arenata, commonly called the Arrowhead Spider, but we cannot even say for certain if it is closely related.  Perhaps one of our readers will be able to provide a species identification for you.

Update
We realized we had a very similar image in our archives that was identified as Eriophora nephiloides.

Whouawhh! many thanks!
beautyfull colors when it’s a good picture…. not like mine…
fred

We did correct the color to the best of our ability.  See the posting.

Update:  May 19, 2013
Subject: Spider
Location: Costa Rica
May 19, 2013 11:25 pm
A few months ago I sent you a (bad) picture of a spider, named by you:Eriophora nephiloides, and you photoshopped the picture very well, thanks for it! Now, I found by the guy who was with me, a better picture. That’s for your website, OK? thanks!
Signature: fred from belgium

Eriophora nephiloides

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Subject: orb spider?
Location: Ballito, KZN, South Africa
March 24, 2013 12:34 am
This spider in in an outdoor shed in Ballito, KZN, South Africa.
Can you tell me what it is?
Signature: Jeremy Lamb

Red Legged Nephila

Hi Jeremy,
While trying to determine your Orbweaver’s identity, we found this online article from Wildlife Extra with the headline “New ‘giant’ Golden orb spider discovered in South Africa” describing the discovery of a new species of Nephila in museum collections and they verifying it in the wild.  The photo illustrating the article was of Nephila inaurata, which looks surprisingly like your individual, but the article was about a different species, Nephila komaci, that was not pictured.  So, while your spider is in the same genus as the newly discovered spider, it is a different species.  The Red Legged Golden Orb Spider, Nephila inaurata, is also pictured on BioDiversity Explorer.  Spiders in the genus Nephila spin webs made of golden silk.

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Subject: Wild beauty !
Location: Koh Yao Noi
March 23, 2013 3:06 am
Hi there !
Pictured this beautiful spider this week, and her amazing dome-like web, can you help me identify the species ? We are on Koh Yao Noi, small island near Phuket, Southern Thailand.
Let me know if quality is insufficient.
Thanks a lot in advance
Signature: Olivier

Orbweaver and Prey

Hi Olivier,
This is some species of Orbweaver.  We will attempt to do additional research to see if we can provide a species identification for you.  The web is rather distinctive.

Orbweaver Web

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Subject: What’s that bug?
Location: Cambodia
March 18, 2013 5:15 am
Dear Bugman,
I shot these pictures in Angkor Wat, July 2012. I don’t even know if it’s an insect or a Nephila pilipes-like spider: it seems to have six legs but silk seemed to be emanating from its behind; it could also have been dragging something else’s silk, not sure. Do you have any idea?
Thanks,
Paul van Hemert
The Netherlands

Golden Silk Spider

Hi Paul,
You are correct that this is a Golden Silk Spider in the genus Nephila.  It is missing a few legs.

Golden Silk Spider

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Subject: Beautiful and unusual spider in Newport Beach
Location: Newport Beach, So. Cal.
March 4, 2013 12:11 pm
I spotted this beautiful and unusual spider is an upscale Newport Beach neighborhood an I would like to know what it is.
Signature: Eric A. Gehlke

Silver Argiope

Dear Eric,
This lovely Silver Argiope, Argiope argentata, is not an uncommon Southern California species, though it ranges much farther including Texas, Florida and south into Mexico and Central America.  The Silver Argiope belongs to the genus commonly called Writing Spiders because of the intricate patterns known as stabilimenta woven into the webs.  Large specimens might bite, but Writing Spiders including the Silver Argiope are considered harmless.  They are also known as Garden Spiders.

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Subject: Unidentified Spider
Location: Manglayang Mountain, West Java, Indonesia
March 2, 2013 2:07 pm
Hello Daniel,
I got another spider photo on 02/24/2013, It’s abdomen shape and color looks really beautiful.
he/she sits on a pine tree and the size is about 10 cm from toe to toe, first I found it on night hunting photos but I decide to take the picture again on the morning… and it still sits there on the same spot.
he/she does spins web, just like an orb but on the tree surface and he/she sits on the center.
Hope that you could help to identify this guy.
Signature: Mohamad Idham Iskandar

Coin Spider

Hi Mohamad,
This is a very interesting and distinctive spider, and though we cannot say for certain what family it belongs to, we do not believe it is an Orbweaver.  We will try to find an identification for you.  Alas, we are currently experiencing technical difficulty and we cannot post anything live to the site, so all additions are on hold until our webmaster returns to the office.

Karl provides an identification:
Hi Daniel and Mohamad:
This beautiful spider is a Golden Orb Weaver in the family Nephilidae (formerly grouped under the Araneidae and Tetragnathidae). The genus is Herennia, and it has an Australasian distribution (India to the Solomon Islands). This is a very small genus with only 11 known species, usually referred to as Coin Spiders, most of which have been described only within the last decade. The island of Java apparently has two species; H. multipuncta is widespread throughout South and Southeast Asia and H. etruscilla is endemic to Java. There are several online images of H. multipuncta and they don’t match the one in this post. The definitive paper on the genus is “A Revision of Herennia (Araneae: Nephilidae: Nephilinae), the Australasian ‘coin spiders’ “ by Kuntner (2005), in which both the detailed descriptions and photos of H. etruscilla provide a very good match to Mohamad’s spider. The unique webs are referred to as ladder webs and if you are interested in learning more you can check out another paper by Kuntner et al. (2009) [see: 9fcfd50cb81b07c8ae]. These spiders also exhibit some interesting sexual behavior. They demonstrate extreme sexual dimorphism, not unusual among spiders, but once engaged in copulation the males stay put, acting as a genital plug that prevents other males from fertilizing the female. In addition to Coin Spiders, common names also include Ornamental Step Ladder Spiders and Ornamental Tree Trunk Spiders. Thanks Mohamad, for a very interesting submission. Regards. Karl
p.s. Daniel, my computer seems to have difficulty with hyperlinks to pdf files. Let me know if the links to the Kuntner papers don’t work and I can send you the full addresses. Karl

Thanks Karl,
The link on the second Kuntner article from 2009 produced a file that we needed to save to our site and link that way.  If you can provide the entire link, we might be able to link directly.

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Subject: Spider from Southern Thailand
Location: Southern Thailand, Khao lak
February 21, 2013 10:35 am
We came across this fine looking spider. We then tried to find it online, but without any luck. Can you help us identify this bug? Thx
Signature: Tina & Chris

Orbweaver

Hi Tina & Chris,
This spider is an Orbweaver in the family Araneidae, but we cannot tell the species at this time.

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