09/06/2026
The Golden Silk spider or, as it’s also known, the banana spider. Found mostly in wooded areas and fields, this orb weaver lies in wait for insects to become trapped in their impressively large webs before it pounces. Webs can get up to 3.5 feet across and though this picture doesn’t show the whole web, believe me, it was a big one.
This picture is unique in that there’s both a male and female spider. And for those thinking that the male is the bigger one, think again! These spiders have what’s called sexual dimorphism- where females are bigger than males. In this case, golden silk female spiders have a 2” body length and a leg span of 5” while males are much smaller, at .5” body length and 1.5” leg span.
Due to males being so much smaller and less capable of spinning their own web, they rely on the female for protection and food and stay on the outskirts of her web until mating season. Once the male has served his purpose, he usually gets eaten by the female.
Spider silk, especially from a Golden Silk spider, is impressive. Their web thread has a compound called xanthurenic acid. This allows for the golden hue of their spider web (hence their name). It’s also incredibly strong. Its tensile strength, the max amount of pulling stress something can have before it breaks, is 1.1 to 1.5 gigapascals, which is a unit of pressure. If I did the conversion right, 1.5 gigapascals is 217,556.607 PSI (pounds square inch).
The makeup of any spiders’ web is quite complex and fascinating to study. Orb Weavers have precise control over their silk production, have seven types of thread and each is used differently, and it’s made from a protein fiber composed of repetitive amino acid sequences, called spidroins.
As creepy as spiders may seem, they're a fascinating arachnid to watch!
