Australian Spiders -- Golden Orb Spiders

This page contains details and photos of Golden Orb spiders that live in our backyard at Lake Macquarie, New South Wales.

Click on thumbnail image to see a larger, higher resolution photo.

A front view of an adult female. Golden Orb spiders have a hairy body and smooth abdomen. Some of its many eyes can also be seen.

In this photo we can see the gold coloured threads behind the spider at the centre of the orb shaped web.

This photo shows the under side of an adult spider. They are generally a brown colour with a light grey topside.

Golden Orb spiders are unique in that they often add strong "protection" strands in front and behind their web.

Golden Orb spiders don't only rely on vibrations caused by insects getting trapped and trying to escape.

While I watched, this one frequently sent a shockwave through her web causing everything caught in it to vibrate.

The Golden Orb Weavers are not aggressive and will vibrate their web to scare off intruders or simply run away and hide if threatened.

This one has a brown abdomen, noticeably different to the common grey variety.

This photo clearly shows that Golden Orb spiders have eyes in the back of their head.

No wonder I didn't have much success trying to sneak my camera up behind her to get a few close-up shots.

A later photo of the same female. Note that this time she is about to have a visit by her boyfriend.

The shot shows just how much larger the female is than the male of this and most spider species.