Appearance
Females are large and grow to a body size of 30–50 mm, with males growing to 5–6 mm. It is the second largest of the orb-weaving spiders apart from the recently discovered "Nephila komaci". The first, second, and fourth pairs of legs of juvenile females have dense hairy brushes, but these brushes disappear as the spider matures.The "N. pilipes" golden web is vertical with a fine irregular mesh. It is not symmetrical, with the hub usually nearer the top. Rather than egg sacs being hung in the web, a pit is dug which is then covered with plant debris or soil.
"N. pilipes" display female gigantism and male dwarfism. In terrestrial animals, "N. pilipes" have the most size differences between males and females. This can be explained by the evolutionary selection for females with better fecundity. Female "N". "pilipes" have huge parental investments to their progenies, including egg production and web construction.
Naming
* "N. p. annulipes" Thorell, 1881 –⤷ "N. p. flavornata" Merian, 1911 –
⤷ "N. p. hasselti" –
⤷ "N. p. jalorensis" –
⤷ "N. p. lauterbachi" –
⤷ "N. p. malagassa" –
⤷ "N. p. novaeguineae" –
⤷ "N. p. piscatorum" Vis, 1911 –
⤷ "N. p. walckenaeri" –
Distribution
"N. pilipes" prefers moist habitats with no direct sunlight. It can be found in Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.
Behavior
Upon reaching adulthood, males leave their webs and begin the search for females. They look for the correct web chemical compositions and web characteristics. It is reported that "N. pilipes" do not have an airborne pheromone-based signaling system for mating.
Food
"Nephila" spp. prey upon only a few species. "Nephila" spp. will remove some specific insects from their webs. They avoid vespid wasps, alate ants, and other insects that secrete distasteful compounds. Due to "Nephila’s" large body size, it can prey on insects with a broad size range, from 2 mm to even larger size than themselves. They adopt different strategies for different sizes of preys. Small preys are directly caught and removed from the web. For larger ones, they inject venom and wait for the decease of their prey. However, "Nephila" spp. have a dramatic change in predation style from the spiderling to adulthood. During the spiderling stage, they feed collectively on a common web. Upon reaching adulthood, they construct their own webs. "Nephila" spp. also reserve food caches to deal with periods of food shortage. They wrap surplus prey in silk and store them in the hub of the web. The silk covering can significantly reduce water loss due to evaporation. Food cache can reduce weight loss during periods with limited preys.It has been reported that some "N. pilipes" can adjust the ultraviolet radiation reflected by stripes on their body to attract preys that are UV light oriented. The bands on the legs and body of "N. pilipes" can reflect UV radiation, so they are more visible to flying insects. The contrast of colors makes them look like food sources for insects, rather than a predator spider.
Predators
Few studies have been conducted to investigate the enemies of "N. pilipes". The primary enemy of "N. pilipes" in nature is the bird, which evolves to fly by and take them without being entangled by the web. It is rarely reported that "N. pilipes" are attacked and killed by parasites like Hymenoptera. To avoid predation by birds, female "Nephila" often construct an aggregated web system with other females or other orb-weavers, so their web system can shield them from birds.References:
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