Hiking Hong Kong Spiders

The following species of spiders have been photographed and identified by Hiking Hong Kong:

Giant Golden Orb Weaver (Nephila Pilipes)

The female specimen of this spider is not something you will enjoy coming into contact with while hiking in Hong Kong. This spider which is also known as the Large Woodland Spider, although not poisonous, and I suppose somewhat interesting to look at, is a daunting prospect when you have no other way to go than below or around it. Here is a picture:

The markings on this spider are very interesting with yellow joints and yellow spots on the underside of its body, and two yellow stripes on the top of it's body. To give you an idea on it's size, most that I have seen on average are about the size of my hand - some are bigger, some smaller. The average body size is between 3-5cm. This particular species is a Nephila Pilipes.

Another interesting aspect of these spiders is their webs. The reason they have the golden in front of their name is not because of their body color as many species exist with many different body colors (there is also a completely black version which I have heard about in Hong Kong but not yet seen - perhaps because of its color!), but rather to its web. The webs of the larger spiders resemble what I can best describe as fishing wire that has a golden color when seen in direct sunlight - or on your clothes as you attempt to walk through one of their webs.

These webs are so strong that they can catch small birds in them. I recall walking through several webs, by accident of course, and the consequential tearing noise as the web pulls apart. These things are thick and I swear they tend to slow you down as you make your way through them. If you happen to see a large catch in one of their webs (be it a bird or a dragon fly) it is interesting to watch how this spider feeds on its prey. The Golden Orb Weaver will completely engulf its catch in web and wrap it up much like a cocoon. Did I mention that it likes its catch fresh, so most likely whatever is caught is alive, even when cocooned. The Golden Orb Weaver will then proceed to pierce it's often up to 2cm long fangs through the cocoon that it has made and suck the nutrients straight out of its victim.

When encountering these monsters on the trail, I personally recommend not to get them out of the way with your hiking stick or any other object. I have seen them become quite aggressive - especially on one occasion when I encountered a truck load of them on one section of a trail on Lantau - and rear up in their web with fangs in attack mode. And they will attack if they feel threatened. Their bite is compared to a bee or wasp sting, no doubt due to those large pincers on their bodies. Thankfully I am not talking from experience, rather from what I have read.

In my opinion it is best to avoid disturbing them, in which case they will happily hang out in their web. Often the female will be hanging out right in the center of the web, and the smaller male (image above) counterpart will be seen somewhere near the edge of the web (about the size of a HK$2 coin). The webs are often easy to spot as firstly they are so thick, and secondly due to the Giant Golden Orb Weaver hanging out right in the middle of it. If you are traveling at speed (mountain bike or running), you may experience unwanted head on (face on?) encounters with these behemoths.

Recently I have noticed that there are several different species of the Giant Golden Orb Weaver spider in Hong Kong. I have managed to get some new pictures of this spider in the latest hike from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo where they are in abundance around the Trappist Monastery.

I got this great picture of a Giant Golden Orb Weaver with a huge bug that got caught in its web.

Here you can see another variety of the Giant Golden Orb Weaver. The large spider is the female, while the smaller ones are the males.

Harvesterman (Order Opiliones)

The following spiders are actually not spiders at all. They are Harvesterman's, otherwise known as a Daddy-Long leg's in other parts of the World. There are over 6,400 different species of Harvesterman's in the World. The reason why they do not fall into the category of a spider is because Harvesterman's have only one body section, whereas spiders have two.

These species native to Hong Kong have a body size of about 3-5mm and a leg span of approximately 10cm. The body is red in color as seen below and the leg joints are white in color.

There is a myth that these 'spiders' are the most venomous in the World but their fangs are too short to penetrate the skin. This is however untrue. Harvesterman's are completely harmless.

Spider Mite (Family Tetranychidae)

These spiders are common pests on household plants as they feed on vegetation, often causing damage to the leaves. They are also often difficult to eliminate as their increasing resistance to pesticides.

This little critter was only about 1mm in size which is about the maximum size that they grow to.