Creepy Crawly

The Golden Orb Weaver (Nephila clavipes, Lat. clavis — "lock pick" + pedis — "foot") 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.

It has an abdomen whose dorsal (upper) surface is marked with a multitude of white or pale yellow spots on a gold background.  This specimen has seven pairs of somewhat larger white spots down the median of the dorsal abdomen, with an interesting arrangement of ancillary spots, some white, others black.  

The Conspicuous tufts of black hair 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. While all spiders have at least two claws on the tips of their tarsi (the last segments on the legs) most orb-weavers--including this species--have three claws, consisting of the paired claws and an unpaired, median claw.

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. 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.

Source – Wikipedia, http://www.bugsinthenews.com/spiders_in_the_fern_bluff_mud.htm