As anyone who has read my blog very often knows, I love spiders. And one of my all time favorites is the banana spider or giant golden web weaver (Nephilia pilipes). It a large orb weaver that makes very large, intricate webs that are remarkably strong. The webs often have a yellow or golden hue. If they find a safe place to build, they will stay there for the entire season, and it’s really interesting to watch them grow. In the spring they start out pretty small, but by the end of summer they can be up to two inches long (not including their legs). Like most orb weavers, the females are much larger than the males, and only the females weave webs. I used to have quite a few of them around my house, but in the past couple of years I haven’t seen very many. This one was near the cattle egret rookery, and I saw her there quite a few times. I couldn’t help but to take some photos of her since I haven’t had any around here lately.