| On
summer nights in Australia a householder may go out in the garden
and find a huge web which spans from the eaves of the house to the
ground, the fence or even to a parked car. The web may not
have been there a couple of hours before and will probably be gone
by morning. But it seems to be quite a sturdy structure with
several strong lines of silk acting as anchors for the large
circular mid-part which will hold the 6 cm long spider in its
centre.
The Orb-weaving Spider is a master
web-maker and catches a wide range of flying insects which it will
bind with silk, bite and inject venom and then devour or hang on
the web for later. Despite its large size and venom it is
not dangerous to humans. Anyone seeing these wonderful webs
in their gardens should leave them alone and enjoy the sight.
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