Dangerous looking spider
Location: Melbourne CBD, Victoria, Australia
February 15, 2011 9:45 pm
When gardening in my inner suburbs Melbourne home, i found this spider. The purple and red colours screamed DANGER to me, and needless to say put me off my gardening endeavours. I was curious about what kind of spider this actually is and whether the DANGER instinct is correct. (Living in Australia means things that look dangerous usually are)
This spider was found in the middle of summer, amongst some very thick tree & vine growth. Had made itself quite a large web, and was about 8cm in length.
Sorry about the poor photo quality, it was as close as i was willing to get!
Signature: H.Spannah
Dear H,
This is a harmless Orbweaver Spider. They can get quite large, and they might bite if provoked, but the bite is not considered to be significantly dangerous. Your spider might be in the genus Nephila, a group known as the Golden Silk Spiders. See the Brisbane Spiders Website.