Yeah looks like a golden orb weaver spider. The first time I had ever seen them was about 12 years ago. I was out on a site inspection on a bushy vacant block of land that was proposed for subdivision at Saratoga. After wandering through the bush I felt I had wandered into a labrynth of webs of about 6 of the suckers without knowing about it. . It was quite an effort to work my way out of them short of getting a big stick!. From that day on I just called them Sataroga Bandy Bandy's because of where I first saw them and because of the bands on their legs.
There was a news article a few months back of one in Atherton - North QLD (where they grow a lot bigger than here) that has a bird caught in its web and was having a feast! Here's teh link for those who haven't seen it. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...001021,00.html
Geez you lot - leave the poor little thing alone. It's not as though it's about to hurt you. They don't even bite if you walk through their web. I wouldn't dream of hurting it.
I had one in my front yard recently. Pretty harmless spider, directly prodding it with a small stick and it wouldn't even get agro (just had to make sure as I was walking about 1 foot from it each day )
Golden orbs spin a magnificent web. A new one each evening. Great for catching flies, mozzies, and people who hate spiders, whom they devour with great relish. They enjoy the company of admirers and wouldn't dream of harming them.
Robert
biggest known GOW are 100mm (4-5 inches) in length including their legs the smallest bird is the Weebills body length 40-50mm and up too 90mm including a long tail.
Both species are prolific in the North of Australia.
Good yarn though typical press spin on it and yes if could be as big as someone hand spreading the legs out.
I don't know if you guys have seen these but here are a few pics of the results of necrotising arachnidism which this spider is capable of. In WA we have the white tail spider which does a similar thing. It is not the venom but rather a fungi which lives on the fangs of the spider.
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