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| Nephila clavipes | ||||||||||||||||
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 Female feeding (bottom) and male (top)
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| Nephila clavipes (Linnaeus, 1767) |
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Aranea clavipes |
Nephila clavipes is a species of golden orb-web spider. It lives in the warmer regions of the Americas. The large size and bright colours of the species make it distinctive. The female is much larger than the male.
In the United States, it ranges throughout the coastal southeast and inland, from North Carolina to Texas. Its distribution in many regions seems localized, and it may be completely absent (or just hard to find) over wide areas. Conversely, in some arboreal or swampy nooks, adults and their webs can be found in large concentrations, especially near the coast. Golden orb-weavers are especially numerous in the time after summer and before fall in the south-eastern and southern U.S. Outside the U.S., this species is widespread — and often common — in large parts of Central America and warmer regions of South America.
The web of a mature female can reach one meter in width, the yellow threads appearing as a rich gold in sunlight. Males come into the female's web for copulating. After mating the female spins an egg sac on a tree, laying hundreds of eggs in one sac. While it is venomous to humans, it will only bite if pinched, and if doing so, the bite is usually relatively harmless and only leads to slight redness and localized pain.1
The silk of N. clavipes has recently been used to help in mammalian neuronal regeneration. In vitro experiments showed that a single thread of silk can lead a severed neuron through the body to the site it was severed from. With a tensile strength of 4×109 N/m, it exceeds that of steel by a factor of six. It is not recognized by the immune system and has antibacterial properties.2
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Footnotes
References
- Allmeling, C.; Jokuszies, A.; Reimers, K.; Kall, S. & Vogt, P.M. (2006): Use of spider silk fibres as an innovative material in a biocompatible artificial nerve conduit. J. Cell. Mol. Med. 10(3): 770-777. PDF - doi:10.2755/jcmm010.003.18
- Weems, Jr., H.V., and G.B. Edwards, Jr. 2001 (2004 revision). golden silk spider. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry. Accessed 2008-04-06.
External links
- Mating pair
- Pictures of N. clavipes (free for noncommercial use)
Gallery
 Female weaving |
 Male (upper) and female (lower). Note the golden color of their web. |
 Male mating with the female while she eats a bee. |
 Showing the transition from the old web (left) to the newly woven web (right) |
 Female on web |
 Female |
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 22 November 2008, at 07:49.
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