Spiders
The world's biggest web-weaving spider has been recently discovered in South Africa. The female of the new species of golden orb weaver spider has a leg span of 13cm -- many times the leg span of the tiny male. Only the females are giants with a body length of 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) and a leg span of 4-5 inches (10-12 centimeters); the males are tiny by comparison.
More than 41,000 spider species are known to science with about 400-500 new species added each year. But for some well-known groups, such as the giant golden orb weavers, the last valid described species dates back to the 19th century.
Nephila spiders are renowned for being the largest web-spinning spiders. They make the largest orb webs, which often exceed 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter. They are also model organisms for the study of extreme sexual size dimorphism and sexual biology.*
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