Trichonephila clavipes
(Golden Silk Orb-weaver)

Featured spider picture The spider species Trichonephila clavipes, commonly known as Golden Silk Orb-weaver, belongs to the genus Trichonephila, in the family Araneidae. Trichonephila clavipes spiders have been sighted 56 times by contributing members. Based on collected data, the geographic range for Trichonephila clavipes includes 7 countries and 8 states in the United States. Trichonephila clavipes is most often sighted outdoors, and during the month of July.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Suborder: Araneomorphae
Family: Araneidae
Genus: Trichonephila
Species: Trichonephila clavipes

Common Name (AAS)

Golden Silk Orb-weaver

Other Common Names

Golden Orb-weaver, Calico Spider, Golden Silk Spider, Banana Spider

Author

Carl Linnaeus, 1767

Primary Colors

Sightings Overview

There have been 56 confirmed sightings of Trichonephila clavipes (Golden Silk Orb-weaver), with the most recent sighting submitted on December 24, 2023 by Spider ID member nayedel. The detailed statistics below may not utilize the complete dataset of 56 sightings because of certain Trichonephila clavipes sightings reporting incomplete data.

Web: 84% of the time, Trichonephila clavipes spiders are sighted in a spider web (Sample size: 56)
Sex: 13 female and 8 male.
Environment: Trichonephila clavipes has been sighted 64 times outdoors, and 4 times indoors.
Outdoors: Man-made structure (27). Low foliage (13). High foliage (17). Saltwater (1). Forest (6).

Location and Range

Trichonephila clavipes (Golden Silk Orb-weaver) has been sighted in the following countries: Bahamas, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Virgin Islands, U.S..

Trichonephila clavipes has also been sighted in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas.

Seasonality

Trichonephila clavipes has been primarily sighted during the month of July.

January: 3
February: 2
March: 6
April: 3
May: 4
June: 3
July: 9
August: 9
September: 6
October: 4
November: 3
December: 4

Additional Remarks

The subfamily this species belongs to, Nephilinae Simon, 1894, was recently restored and transferred back to the family Araneidae from Nephilidae by Dimitrov et al., 2016. The nephilines have also been placed in the family Tetragnathidae in the past.
The silk of this species is a noticeable golden-yellow color, which is where the common name comes from.
Three of the four legs have a noticeable “brush” or tuft of black hairs on them. The 3rd leg pair is thinner and shorter than the rest, and does not have the black brushes.
The web of a female may have multiple small males temporarily living in it. The males are tiny in comparison to her, and mostly black and brown in coloration.
The giant, orb-shaped web may have a few barrier webs built next to it.
Unlike many other types of orb-weaving spiders which take down and rebuild their web each day or night, this species only repairs its web as-needed.
One of the largest orb-weaving spiders in North America.
Watch for the “Joro Spider” (Nephila clavata) in the state of Georgia: it could potentially be mistaken for this species as it has the same general body shape, but it’s different in coloration and pattern and does not have the brushes of black hairs on its legs. It has been recently introduced to northeast Georgia from East Asia and it appears to have become established.
Small, silver spiders in the genus Argyrodes (family Theridiidae) may be present in the web of this spider; they are kleptoparasitic, living off of stolen prey items from this orbweaver’s web.