Arachnid’s web; A Spider with a Big Appetite

The most intriguing thing I found out when I came to live in North Carolina was that there was a certain spider living here that I had read about when I was younger. It is a spider with the inept ability to catch birds in their intricately woven webs and feed on them; the bird eating spider. I thought such spider’s only lived in countries like Australia or perhaps in the Amazon, but then I found out that they lived in North Carolina as well as other states. How I came to find out about this was one day while sitting in Latin class I looked out the window and in the tree there was a dead bird caught in a web. It shocked, yet fascinated, me because I had no clue such spiders dwelt in North Carolina. Then after that incident I would constantly spot these spider’s webs, with birds in them, in the trees as we would drive by. Lastly, a few days ago outside our house a spider was out the back door and my friend called me over to it, and I saw right away that it was a bird eating spider because I had just researched on them the night before so I knew what type of colorings they had and how sizable they were. Let’s just say I thank God for whoever invented Raid, because we used plenty of it on him or her.

The name of this type of spider is Golden silk orb-weaver, and this is because of the color of web they create which can look gold if the sun shines directly on it. Unfortunately I was not able to experience seeing this rare phenomenon because I did not know this little fact until after I had killed the spider and taken the web down with a broom. We were only able to see the web if we stood in a certain place, and this is also a rare fact about the Golden orb-weaver. They create their webs to blend in with whatever background is behind them. I will go into their web-building later, for now I want to give a broad overview of the species. The scientific name for this particular spider, which can be found in the United States from North Carolina to Texas, is Nephila Clavipes. Which in the Latin clavis means “lock pick” and Pedis means “foot.[1]” It is from the Nephilidae family which the name actually comes from the Hebrew word Nephilim which means “giants.[2]” It can be considered a giant in contrast to the typical spider, but it does not even come close to those of the tarantula species. Speaking of which, in Australia and other warmer climates there is a spider that is of the Tarantula species called the Goliath Bird-eater which also can be seen chowing down on the bird genus. But both the Goliath bird-eater and Golden orb-weaver do not mainly feed on birds. Their diet consists of mostly insects, but because of the strength of the Golden orb-weaver’s web sometimes birds tend to get trapped when flying through the woods (the Goliath can be seen catching birds because of it considerable size, and sometimes even bats, snakes, and rats[3]). Different species of the Nephilidae family can be found in different environments, for instance the Golden orb-weaver can be found in Japan, Australia, New Guinea, Southern Africa, Madagascar, China, and Thailand.[4] All the species have different markings and colors to them but it is not too distinguished where you can’t tell that it is a Golden orb-weaver. The distinct features of an orb-weaver is that on its long legs they have red, black, and yellow stripes while the body is rather elongated, and the female when she matures can have a sort of yellow-reddish shell covering her back and abdomen area; while the legs proceed from the upper abdomen. This gives the spider a sort of rib-caged effect on its upper abdomen. The male is smaller then the female, which is common in many spider species, and he looks like a miniature version of the female but he does not have the shell-type covering on back and lower abdomen. All of the Nephila species have these colors distinguishing them, with some variations.

The most fascinating and awe-inspiring thing about this spider is its intricate web. While all spiders spin webs of various sizes, shapes, and design the Golden silk orb-weaver is the only one to produce the most beautiful and intricate of all spider classes. The reason it is called the Golden orb-weaver is because of the color of web spun, which if it is in direct sunlight will shine gold, which like its body is bright and would be expected to be seen by flying birds and insects. But in fact the orb-weaver spins its web in such a way to camouflage it into the background. It knows exactly the precise direction to place its web and the best position for it. It is amazing to think that a simple animal like this can have an innate knack for building its web in this way so to hide it from certain predators. Birds are indeed one of those many predators that eat these spiders, but the orb-weavers web can turn their status from prey to predator because of their unique webs. It is said that their web is stronger than steel which is why it is able to catch smaller bird species.[5] I wished I had kept the web up to see it shine gold in the sun. The web is spun in the typical octagon-shape like most spider webs are, but the color, size, and design differs from normal arachnids. The design is spun in a zigzag pattern and can look incomplete, but it is very complex because if you look at it from afar you can’t see the fine-meshed lining of the web. Young Golden orb-weavers aren’t mature enough to spin the gold colored web but that won’t stop them from building as equally intricate webs as the mature ones.

For such small and non-noticeable creatures they have the inept ability to make their webs camouflaged, so to capture their prey before it knows what has happened. They know exactly how to build their web, strong enough to capture small to medium birds, and also know exactly where to place their web to make it invisible. Many arachnids have this ability and many times you don’t notice the web but only the spider. Also spiders seem to have an intelligence about them, their bodies are so sensitive to light and shade that they can sense when a shadow is on them and they usually go still and stop moving. Their sensitivity to light goes so far that if they are crawling on the floor and your shadow gets close to them, but not on them, they will stop a few inches away because they sense that something is moving. It is like they have their own personality, because one spider was crawling on the floor of my friend’s apartment and as soon as she grabbed the Raid to kill him, he stopped going around the corner and turned to go back the way he came; as if he knew what was happening and was trying to run away. Most people are disgusted and creeped out by these interesting looking animals but even these creepy-crawlers prove that they were created in such a way so that they would be able to survive life in their environment. Because they naturally live by what they were created to do, and that was to live long enough to reproduce and bring many more of their kind into this world. They survive off of their intricate web-work because that is where they catch their food. Is it just random that they can spin silk in such a pattern to catch their prey? Is it random that their eight legs are small enough, yet sturdy enough, to spin their webs, crawl on the ground, walls, ceilings, trees and plants, and wrap their prey in a perfect mummified ball of silk to feed on and preserve it? Is anything about a spider’s existence random, or is it us that has it wrong? How can something so intricately fashioned to survive the life it lives be a random act of nature? Everything about the spider, right down to its very hair sensors on its legs, just screams that it wasn’t randomly put together but was indeed created. Just like a work of art that is carefully thought and planned out for hours before it’s painted, then the artist takes longer to start their creation, until after hours of detail and care the painting is finished. The spider is just like that work of art.   

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[1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila_clavipes.

[2] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neplilim.

[3] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_birdeater.

[4] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver.

[5] Ibid.