Black spider with Black and white banded legs.
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 12:29 AM
I found two spiders in my house today.. (so-cal) I’ve found them outside before.. we also have black widows around.. anyways, this spider is black with what looks like black and yellow (or white) bands on it’s legs.. the legs are pretty long.. and it’s not hairy.. it’s not that big.. smaller than the widows.. im not sure what it is or if it’s poisionous.. please let me know.. it’s not that picture, it just resembles it.. maybe a little smaller..
Thanks, Tiffany
Geographic Location of Bug:  Kitchen and Bathroom..

Golden Orb Weaver

Hi Tiffany,
With all due respect, “kitchen and bathroom” was not really what we had in mind on our form that requests a geographic location.  It would be far more helpful to know the name of the city or state or country where you found the spider, but upon rereading your letter, we see that you indicate Southern California.  Your spider is a relatively easy identification for us.  This is Argiope aurantia, a Golden Orb Weaver, but it also has numerous other common names.  All spiders are poisonous, but the Golden Orb Weaver does not pose a threat were it to bite.  Since it is a large spider, a bite might be painful, but it would result in little more that slight swelling and irritation.  Upon inserting your photo into this posting, we realized that the individual spider in the photo was not photographed in your kitchen or bathroom.  That may just nullify our identification.  Sending a photo other than the actual specimen you want identified is a dicey venture.  Also, we only like to post images from the originators of the photos, because that implies permission to post.  We are really hoping the internet police don’t come knocking at our door (or flooding our website with demands to remove the image at once) but we will tempt fate since we invested so much time in creating this posting.  We also were happy as we just posted an image of a Gambian  Golden Silk Spider and spoke about the Golden Orb Weaver in that posting.

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Help identifying African spider
Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Hi Bugman,
I took this photo in The Gambia last week and am having trouble identifying it. It looks a little like the Golden Orb Weaver but the marking look a little different.
Any ideas?
Jodie Wood
Gambia

Golden Silk Spider from Gambia

Hi Jodie,
Your spider is a Golden Silk Spider in the Genus Nephila. There is currently a photo making the rounds on the internet of an Australian Nephila species, probably Nephila maculata, that has captured a bird, a Chestnut Breasted Mannikin, in its web. Several readers have sent us that photo but we don’t publish third party photos unknowingly without getting the photographer’s permission. Telegraph.UK.co calls that spider a Golden Orb Weaver, but using common names can cause confusion since that common name refers to a different species, Argiope aurantia, in the U.S. We like Golden Silk Spider since the color of the silk is really Golden. Wikipedia refers to the Nephila species as the Golden Silk Orb-Weavers. There was an effort at one time to weave the silk of the Nephila species into fabric because of its strength. The strength of the silk allows the Golden Silk Spider to occasionally capture a small bird. The silk of the American Golden Orb Weaver is also quite strong, and we have photos submitted to our site of an Argiope aurantia feeding on a hummingbird. The only American species of Nephila is Nephila clavipes, also called a Banana Spider, but that common name also refers to other species of spiders. All we can say for certain regarding your lovely photo is that it is in the genus Nephila, and that we prefer the common name Golden Silk Spider.

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