Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider Trichonephila clavipes. Arachnid. Photograph taken by the author. Copyright © 2025 Now I Wonder. All rights reserved.

Complete Guide To The Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider

ByChristine Species Guides

Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider

Golden Silk Orb Weaver Images

How To Identify Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders

  • Like many spiders, Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders are sexually dimorphic.
    • Females are much larger than males and the sexes look different from each other.
  • Female Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders are unmistakable.
    • Not only are they the largest orb weaver spider species found in North Carolina, they are also one of the largest spiders in our state, period.
    • Female Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders grow up to 1.3 inches (3.4 cm) in total body length, with legs that span nearly 4 inches (10 cm) (Bradley 2012).
    • Their cephalothoraxes are dark in color but covered in fine silvery-gray hairs that look like fur.
    • Their abdomens are elongated, slightly curved, and bright yellow-orange, with paired white spots that run lengthwise.
    • Their long legs are pale orange near their bodies and darken towards the tips.
    • Their first, second, and fourth pair of legs sport large, thick black tufts of stiff hair at ends of their femora and tibiae.
  • Male Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders are harder to identify on their own but are easily identified when positioned next to the females in the webs.
    • Male Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders are darkly colored and much, much smaller than the females.
    • Males grow only to about 0.3 inches (0.8 cm) in total body length and lack black leg tufts.

Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider Notes

  • Female Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders are famous for their large size, imposing appearance, and huge, sticky webs.
    • Look for these huge orb weaver spiders in shaded woodlands and swamps.
    • Hikers in these areas should be attentive and constantly scan the area ahead and above them for these spiders.
    • While the spiders themselves are purported to have relatively weak venom, running head-first into one of this species’ strong, sticky, and gigantic webs is frankly horrifying.
  • Females construct huge, asymmetrical orb webs that can span many feet, and are never found away from them.
    • The web strands are gold in color (which gives this species one of its informal, common, English names).
    • Like many orb weaver spiders, female Golden Orb Weaver Spiders constantly repair their webs. They eat about half the silk strands every day, recycle the silk proteins in their bodies, then spin fresh strands the next day.
    • Most webs of this species hold one female orb weaver, many male orb weavers, and one or more individuals of the spider genus Argyrodes.
      • Argyrodes spiders are “web kleptoparasites”; they steal food that is generally too small for the Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders to eat themselves.
  • Female Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders construct incredibly strong webs, even for spiders in general.
  • Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders accumulate prey in the hubs of their webs.
    • Individual spiders carry prey from the outskirts of their webs to the centers and anchor the prey with single strands of silk, then settle down to feed.
    • If additional prey strike their webs, the spiders abandon their in-progress meal, travel out to the new prey, and repeat the process.
  • Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders are easy to observe, because they are large, diurnal, and rest out in the open on their huge webs during the day.

Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider Classification

  • Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spiders have several other informal, common English names including:
    • Golden Orb Weaver Spider
    • Banana Spider
    • Calico Spider
  • Formerly known by the scientific binomial “Nephila clavipes“, scientists moved the species into genus Trichonephila. Many older field guides will still list the Golden Silk Orb Weaver Spider by its former genus.

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Arachnida

Order

Araneae

Family

Nephilidae (Nephilid Orbweavers spiders)

Genus

Trichonephila (formerly Nephila)

Species

T. clavipes (formerly N. clavipes)

Binomial Name

Trichonephila clavipes (formerly Nephila clavipes)

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Christine
Christine is the creator and author of NowIWonder.com, a website dedicated to the animals and plants that share our world, and the science that helps us understand them. Inspired by lifelong exploration and learning, Christine loves to share her knowledge with others who want to connect with wild faces and wild spaces.
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