We have those exact spiders at our camp in NW Florida. We call them banana spiders or golden orb weavers.
this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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You are right, these spiders are "banana spiders or golden orb weavers". That is true. But that is a colloquial name that encompases a whole bunch of different species.
And the one posted here is one that is exclusive to Africa(and Yemen, see the Map someone else posted).
So while you have very similar spiders, I'm pretty sure you dont "have those exact spiders". At least from a taxonomic standpoint. Behaviourally those spiders very much act the same way.
Looks like Trichonephila senegalensis. Are you in Africa or the middle east?
Sorry for the late reply, Africa.
Definitely Nephila. Golden Orb Weavers like this are common in the mid-Atlantic. We had one that looked exactly like this living in a boxwood bush in our front yard in Pennsylvania. Enormous, and beautiful.
I'm betting OP is in North America, probably East coast.
Huh. After looking at their other pics, it does look like they don't live in the US. You may be right on the genus, but darned if that doesn't look exactly like our lady.
This looks exactly like the 2 golden orb weavers we have that hang around the house here in the south. Just as big and bright colored as well. Awesome creatures.
There are two species in the US:
and Trichonephila clavata, which is only documented in Georgia.
And while similar, they shouldn't look "exactly" the same. The picture OP posted is definitly a species that does not occure in the US.
If you had some pictures that would be great.
Yea I have some from last summer, can let me figure out how to upload them to here.
Where are you located?
I'd rather not say, just in the southeast.
Close enough. East coast.
Definitely Nephila.
In 2019 a lot of Nephila have been reclassified as Trichonephila. A lot of sources aren't up to date with that.
I’m betting OP is in North America
Pretty sure he's not, I know the species there. He must be in Africa or Asia. And my match in Africa is pretty good ...
Going by OP's comment/post history, he's from Africa. So that's that.
Yeah, I think you're right; his photo album is all ... not US.
Nephila occur globally, but I always thought there were significant regional differences. But, as I said, that looks exactly like the ones in Pennsylvania.
But, as I said, that looks exactly like the ones in Pennsylvania.
Mh, I'm quite curious now. Pennsylvania is quite far north, you shouldn't really get any golden orb-weavers (Trichonephila)
T. clavipes - Predominantly southeastern US. Florida, Gulf States, north to North Carolina, south to Central and South America as far as Argentina.
T. clavata - northeast GA
Do you maybe mean the black and yellow garden spider, Argiope aurantia?
Hm. I don't know. When we first found her (2004), it was a little harder to identify animals like this. I was told by someone local that they were Golden Orb Weavers, and that's what I've believed ever since.
She was something, though, and worth taking pictures of, so you can judge for yourself:
This picture is deceiving; I didn't want to disturb her by getting too close, and her web was enormous so it was hard to both get my hand behind her in the bush and take the photo; her body was the size of my thumb:
And here's a side shot, if it helps identification:
I think the identification was partially based on the web pattern -- there's that distinctive radial thick web running along the diameter of her web.
She was with us all summer, and we took pains to avoid damaging her web in the hopes that we'd get some of her babies the next year, but she was the only one we ever saw in 12 years.
Yep, that's definitely Argiope aurantia. It has quite a lot of common names, including "golden garden spider" .. and it is an orb-weaver.
However it is not a "golden orb-weaver" which is the common name for the genera Nephila and Trichonephila.
there’s that distinctive radial thick web running along the diameter of her web.
Yep, they are called "stabilimenta" and we don't really know what they do. Very common in Argiope spp.
Cool, thanks. Although she's 23 years dead by now, it's good to have correctly placed her. I'm not a spider guy, as a rule, but aside from Portia (and, really, who doesn't love Portia) she was my favorite spider. So beautiful, and we used to say she was elegant because it looked like she was wearing black, long-sleeved gloves as if for a dinner party.