Some common orb-weaving spiders in eastern Australia

When people say they have a spider's web in their garden and ask me to identify the owner, it almost always turns out to be one of these.

What's an orb web?

Orb webs are those round webs with a radiating structure of spokes like a bicycle wheel, like the one in the photo below. Some orb webs can be very big and strong. The big Nephila spiders in Northern Australia for example, have orb webs so big and strong that they can spring you backwards until you push through them. Other orb webs can be so fragile and tiny that they’re hard to see.

By the way, if you do walk into a large orb web then a good thing to do is to carefully retreat and then most of the web should peel right back off you. That’s easier said than done, I know, because it can be hard not to freak out a bit. So I’ll point out something that might be encouraging: I don’t know of any orb weaving spider that is considered dangerous to people. And when you think about it, why would orb weavers need powerful venom anyway? Because their webs do such a brilliant job at catching and immobilising prey. So that’s a reassuring thought for all you people thrashing about first thing in the morning in some newly-spun orb web.

Here are some of the more common orb-weaving spiders from the east coast of Australia.

St Andrew's Cross Spider

(Argiope aetherea)

Who could ever dislike a handsome critter like the St Andrew’s Cross spider? (See the pictures above) It’s colourful, harmless and eats the things that bother us. If you’re lucky you’ll find one with clear diagonal white bands in the centre of the web instead of just the single band in the photo above left. That gives a clue as to how this spider got its name, because the white diagonal cross in the Union Jack just happens to be St Andrew's Cross from the flag of Scotland. Although I don’t think the spider worries much about that.

This decorative spider hangs head-downwards in the middle of its web, with its legs stretched out over the cross. The ones you’ll see are most probably females because the males are smaller and harder to find. Look around the edges of the web and you might see one. It has a similar shape to the females but is less colourful and definitely smaller.

There are about 20 different members of the Argiope genus in Australia.

Golden Orb Weaver

(Nephila ornata)

Here's another common spider, especially around late summer and early Autumn when you might find lots of them hanging around places like power lines and trees. The photo at right should help you recognise it. I could easily fill a page just with this these spiders, so I did.

Other Nephila species

There are other spiders in this group. It’s pretty safe to call them Golden Orb Weavers.

In northern Australia they can get pretty big. For example, Nephila maculata is one impressive big spider. Living in the tropical north of Australia, these handsome critters make very strong — and big — orb webs. Their web is so strong that some indigenous people have found some clever uses for them. For example, they might swing a stick through their webs, tangling up the spiders and their webs, and use those spidery tangles to lure and trap fish.

These spiders eat insects that get caught in the web, but they have a reputation for eating birds too. With a web so big (over a metre across) and strong it’s not surprising it could happen. These spiders have been seen feeding on the birds, but I stress that it is not their usual diet.

I often smile at the Hollywood movies which all too often feature a nice big Nephila spider in one of their jungle scenes. The implication is that the giant 8-legged thing in that web is deadly, but in fact they are not dangerous to people at all.

A large Nephila spider photographed in northern Queensland. This spider was about as big as my outstretched hand

Garden Orb Weaver

If you walk out your front door in the morning and get a face full of giant orb web that wasn’t there the night before, then chances are you're got a Garden Orb Weaver. This is a common spider, and people with the above-mentioned face-full of spider web might argue they’re a little too common. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve walked into those webs, but I still like to see them around. These spiders make a new web each night, sometimes where you least expect them. They hang around in it until the morning when they’ll climb up to hide under a leaf or some other shelter like the eaves of your house. You can usually spot them by looking for convenient hiding spots above their web and near one of the support strands.

These spiders are big, heavy-bodied, hairy, and harmless. They are mostly grey or brown. Because they make a new web each night, you can get a good chance to watch how they make them.

Six-spined Spider

(Gasteracantha minax)

These are strange but also beautiful spiders. The abdomen is large and has prominent spines, which certainly explains the name. The rest of the abdomen is decorated with spots and stripes. These ones were photographed in the southern highlands district of NSW but they will turn up in each of the states of Australia

Spiny Spider

(Gasteracantha fornicata)

If you thought the Six-spined Spider was odd, then have a good look at these critters. You’ll see them in the centre of their webs, and there are lots of them in northern Queensland.

Leaf-curling Spider

The Leaf-curling spider is an easy one to identify, even though it’s often hard to see the spider. If you see an orb web - about a foot across, with a leaf curled around in its centre and only a few spider legs visible inside the leaf, then you’ve got a Leaf-curling spider. This spider uses its silk to hold the leaf in a curled-over shape as a place to hide, only racing out when the web catches something. For some reason, whenever I feed these spiders with an insect or something the spiders seem to muck things up. They charge out, run around in a big flap and the insect invariably escapes. But obviously their success rate is good enough to survive this long

• So, what’s with this ‘Nature Stuff’ then?

Birds

• Indian Mynahs — pushy and invasive
• Noisy Miners — aggression in the suburbs
• Starlings — Another feral pest, or not?
• Australian White Ibis — conservation takes a twist
• Common water birds around Sydney
• Pacific Black Ducks
• Geese teeth — do birds have teeth?
• Rainbow Lorikeets — raucous and colourful
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoos — beautiful birds with an awful call
• Glossy Black Cockatoos — casuarinas’ seed crackers
• Are they Crows or Ravens in Sydney?
• Black Swans — bird emblem of Western Australia
• Brush Turkeys — Cool birds, huge nests
• Darters — comfortable on land, in the air and water
• Australian Pelicans

Trees

• A few big Australian trees
• Unusual and beautiful Australian trees
• Why Australia’s giant trees might never return

Reptiles

• Lizard bite — getting more than you bargained for

Insects and spiders

• One of the longest insects in the world (photos)
• Some common Australian orb-weaving spiders
• Hunstman Spiders
• Fear of Huntsman Spiders
• Golden Orb Weaver Spiders
• How many eyes do spiders have?
• How many eyes do insects have?
• How I catch spiders (to take them outside)
• The amazing net-casting spiders
• Commensal spiders — eating the leftovers
• What is a spider? No, seriously, what makes a spider a spider?
• Jumping spiders

Other stuff

• Book review: Back from the Brink
• So what’s a feral species, really?
• Camouflaged critters — blending in to a scene near you
• Critters in the city
• Fire and the Australian bush
• Cute stuff — critters sure can look cute when they’re little
• Wildlife photography — an unhelpful guide
• Feeding wild animals — is it a good idea?
• Photo Sales — I might have that Australian nature pic you’re looking for
• In pursuit of the waterskiing duck (blog)