Golden Silk Spider
Trichonephila clavipes
Arachnida
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- About 1 year
- Size
- Large
- Diet
- Insectivore
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Social
- Solitary
- Biome
- Tropical rainforest
- Range
- The Americas
- Movement
- Climbing
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Venom
- Status
- Common
About
The golden silk spider spins massive orb webs up to a metre wide using silk that gleams yellow-gold in sunlight — one of the strongest natural fibres known. Females dwarf males by up to tenfold in body size, a striking sexual dimorphism rare even among spiders.
Life cycle
- 1.egg sacA silk-wrapped egg sac shelters a clutch of eggs until the young are ready to emerge.
- 2.juvenileA spiderling emerges from the egg sac already in miniature adult form and starts catching prey almost immediately.
- 3.subadultA near-adult arachnid molts through several instars, growing larger and developing mature markings.
- 4.adultFully grown after its final molt.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Arachnida
- Order
- Araneae
- Family
- Nephilidae
- Genus
- Trichonephila
- Species
- Trichonephila clavipes