'Giant' orb web spider discovered in Africa and Madagascar

[theHandpuppet]

This is really cool. I find spiders to be truly fascinating.

'Giant' orb web spider discovered

A new and rare species of "giant" orb web spider has been discovered in Africa and Madagascar.

In the journal Plos One, researchers describe Nephila komaci as the largest web spinning spider known to science.

Only the females of this groups of species are giants, with a leg span of up to 12cm; the male spiders are tiny by comparison.

Scientists say the female spiders are capable of spinning webs that reach up to 1m in diameter....

More, with photos, at this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8316720.stm

[lordsummerisle]

1. Seems kind of oxymoronic

that a 'giant' spider was just discovered...

[PDJane]

2. spiders are wonderful.........

I have a bird-killing tarantula, nicely preserved of course, in a box above my desk....a souvenir brought home for me by a friend's offspring who thought Auntie Shaz would reall like it. I love wolf spiders too.....they're fascinating.

Wonderful critters.

[theHandpuppet]

3. And some not so lovable

I have a Lab mix who had the misfortune of being nabbed by some brown recluse spiders. His reaction was so severe we thought we would lose him. After many months and more money for vet specialists than I prefer to admit, he finally made a complete recovery. I had no idea the brown recluse could be that dangerous to pets.

[DemBones DemBones]

4. Shudder. I love snakes but spiders are not my thing.

I can appreciate some of the small, delicate ones, and I can even admire orb weavers and their webs from a few feet away, but I'm basically a card-carrying arachnophobe due to early exposure to tarantulas.

So I am not clicking the link but I'm curious if these 12 cm leg span orb weavers really make only 1 meter webs. Can you tell from the photos?

The orb weavers here make webs close to a meter and they're about 5 cm leg span so you'd think the bigger spiders would make bigger webs. The better to snare antelopes and hunters, you know. :D

[theHandpuppet]

6. It wasn't clear from the article that they have measured a web

In fact, scientists have yet to see a "live" giant orb spider, according to the article:

"Dr Kuntner told BBC News that the discovery was "very unusual" because Nephila spiders were so well-studied and so large.

"But this species is so elusive that even Dr Kuntner has not seen one live. He was able to identify the species from a specimen he first examined in 2000.

"The giant female was in a collection belonging to the Plant Protection Research Institute in Pretoria, South Africa."

So I assume the 1 meter web is a measurement taken from those of already known orb spiders?

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Thanks for the info. I'm glad your dog recovered, never

heard of a dog being bitten by brown recluses though I know people who have been and it's not pretty, can be quite dangerous. Do you know where your dog picked up the bites? We've always had Labs, would hate one to go through what yours did.

[theHandpuppet]

10. It took us a long time to figure that out

For a long time we hadn't even realized it was a spider that had resulted in Luke's own near-death and the vets were baffled until we were referred to some specialists. We finally found that the recluse had been hiding beneath the bedding of a large wooden dog bed my late father had hand-crafted for Luke. We took what appeared to be the carcasses of several smooshed youngsters for identification at which point they were recognized as the brown recluse. I felt so guilty about it and Luke suffered terribly for such a long time.

[theHandpuppet]

11. Should have added...

One of the signs that he had bitten was a large, black area of necrotic tissue on his abdomen. That took nearly two years to fully heal.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. The necrosis is impressively gross and long-lasting.

I first saw photos of recluse-caused necrosis on a man's arm when I studied parasitology and was amazed.
At the time, I'd barely heard of those spiders; black widows were always the ones to watch out for.

They say most people get bitten by recluses when putting on clothes that have been hanging in a closet for a long time but I figured your dog had not been wearing clothes. Since they were in Luke's bedding, though, it sounds like they prefer to be around cloth in dark places as opposed to just being in dark places. I will definitely keep that in mind when going through closets and such. Thanks for this info.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Take a look at the writing in the web. It's a message.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

7. Cool!

I draw and paint spiders, usually from random encounters, although the below-left Mexican Red Knee Tarantula was actually a pet portrait!

http://images-0.redbubble.net/img/art/border:blackwithdetail/product:laminated-print/size:small/view:preview/3221438-3-mexican-red-knee-tarantula.jpg http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/backingcolor:white/product:greeting-card/view:preview/3928239-4-spider-face.jpg http://images-0.redbubble.net/img/art/border:blackwithdetail/product:laminated-print/size:small/view:preview/3881925-2-betty.jpg

Look for my work at http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/peter-janes.html

[theHandpuppet]

9. Great work!

I think the portrait of "Betty" is an especially beautiful watercolor.

[Duer 157099]

13. Funny caption on this photo

Male Nephila spiders look tiny in comparison to "giant" females