Ever since we moved to Florida when I was in high school, I’ve really liked banana spiders (Trichonephila clavipes), also known as golden web weavers or golden orb weavers. The first time I saw one I was amazed by its sheer size. I remember some fairly good sized daddy long legs in New Mexico, but nothing that was even close to these girls. The next thing that I noticed about the first one I ever saw was how colorful it was. Finally, the web itself was quite impressive. Since then, I’ve learned a lot more about these spiders, including that all the great big ones are females. All of these spiders hatch as tiny little spiderlings in the spring. The females start spinning webs, trapping lots of insects, and growing, growing, growing. The males grow quite a bit, too, but they get no where near as big as the females. They tend to wander from web to web from spring well into the summer. They will mooch a bug or two and then move on. But as fall approaches they choose one female to mate with and they move into her web. Many females will have multiple males in their webs this time of year. When the female is ready, she will choose a mate, breed with him, and then eat him. Later in the fall she will lay her eggs in egg sacks and shortly thereafter, she will die. This gorgeous girl has a huge, well constructed web in the woods behind my house. She had several smaller males sharing the web with her when I noticed her last week. When those guys disappear, I’ll know that she has been bred and is ready to produce next years population of little banana spiders.