Spider 蜘蛛

Eight-Legged Wonders

Golden silk orb-weaver (genus Nephila):

a genus of araneomorph spiders noted for the impressive webs they weave. Nephila consists of numerous individual species found around the world. They are also commonly called golden orb-weavers, giant wood spiders, or banana spiders.

Golden Orb Weavers (Nephila) are known to occasionally eat prey as big as small birds.[1][2]

1. ^ Malkin, Bonnie (October 22, 2008). "Giant Spider Eating a Bird Caught on Camera". Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/22/easpider122.xml. Retrieved May 3, 2010. 
2. ^ "Second devouring bird-spider strikes". Ninemsn. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=657123.

Female N. clavipes with a male behind her

N. pilipes on Lamma Island, Hong Kong  

http://www.bugsinthenews.com/Texas%20Spiders/Golden%20Silk%20Spider%20(Nephila%20clavipes)%2015%20July%202007%20Sandra%20R%20Houston%20TX.htm

Nephila clavipes has an abdomen whose dorsal (upper) surface is marked with a multitude of white or pale yellow spots on a gold background.  The conspicuous tufts of black hair ( 腿部末端像刷子一样的长刚毛 ) adorn the first, second, and fourth legs on each side of the body.  The tufts are positioned at the distal ends of the femur and tibia of each of these legs.

The body segments are fused into two tagmata, cephalothorax and abdomen (頭胸部和腹部).  The upper part of the cephalothorax is the white thick plate, with the eyes in the front.  A excellent close-up on Web  mirror