Darwin's bark spider - overview, Andasibe, Madagascar
Could it be true?
- Bark spider appearance (Caerostris)
- Location: Andasibe
- Giant web across stream
This ticks all the boxes and likely makes this the legendary Darwin Spider. Known for building the largest web of all spiders, as well as having silk known as the strongest biological material ever studied. This allows it to build a web that bridges wide streams and lakes.
The purpose: no other spider can build such a web therefore the spider can uniquely position itself above water, having this habitat all to itself.
In this instance, the web is parallel to the stream, not crossing it. It hung about 2m away from the shore line. Which is a lucky find, you would normally not be able to get this close. The way it bridges its web is pretty random, the result of wind. This is the female, the male is much smaller and red to brown.
Darwin's bark spider is an orb-weaver spider that produces one of the largest known orb webs, web size ranged from 900–2800 cm2, with anchor lines spanning up to 25 metres . The spider was discovered in Madagascar in the Andasibe-Mantadia National Park in 2009. The species was named in honour of the naturalist Charles Darwin, with the description being prepared precisely 150 years after the publication of ''The Origin of Species'', on 24 November 2009.
Its silk is the toughest biological.. more
