The golden in her common name comes from the colour of the web which you can see well in this photo. This spider is renowned for occasionally catching small birds in her strong web. The latin name edulis was applied to this species by French naturalist and explorer Labillardière who gave it the name after he observed people in New Caledonia eating this spider.
wow. I didn't know that Michael. I always thought the golden orb spider was yellow! I've never noticed this pretty spider before or its golden threaded web, but now its in season I'm see it everywhere - but the bigger ones I have to look up to find and only the really big ones seem to have the golden thread or I'm just not standing in the right place to see the colour.
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