Giant wood spider or Giant golden orb weaver spider (Nephila pilipes Fabricus, 1793) is one of the large sized spiders found in India. We can spot them in well wooded areas, plantations and forests. Male spiders are very small compared to females and red in colour. Males grow up to a size of 2-4 mm and females attained a size of 35-40 mm, 10 times larger than males. Male spiders lead a kleptoparasitic life in the web of females, i.e., male spiders steal food from female’s web. The male spiders usually die a few days after mating. Female spiders deposits its egg sac in a small pit dug in the ground, covers it with leaf litter and soil. Nephila pilipes Fabricus got its name from its ‘fondness of spinning’, originated from Greek words ‘nein’ denotes to spin related to the word ‘nema’ signifies thread and ‘philos’ refers to love. It is known for weaving large webs up to 2m in diameter with strong web structures. It is selective in its feeding habit. It ranges from flies to beetles; even small birds get trapped in its strong web. Its prey capture attempts are remarkable in different growth phases that the spiderlings inhabit a communal web after birth and consume dead prey but not attack any living forms. Subsequently move to individual webs and begin to attack tiny live prey. They grow to a larger size and then they move to larger and stronger webs and attain greater ‘attacking confidence’ in the way they capture their prey. These spiders are one of the key predators of the agriculture pests in coffee and other plantations.
References
1. Higgins, L. (2017). Nephila Life Cycle. [online] Uvm.edu. Available at: http://www.uvm.edu/~lehiggin/LifeCycle.html.
2. Hill, E.; Christenson, T. (1981). “Effects of prey characteristics and web structure on feeding and predatory responses of Nephila clavipes spiderlings”. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 8 (1): 1–5
Information and Editing: Mr. Nandakumar M K and Dr. Smitha S. Thankappan; Photograph: Mr. Nandakumar M K; Approval: Dr. N Anil Kumar