Trichonephila clavipes, commonly known as the golden silk spider, the golden silk orb-weaver, or the banana spider, is a species of large orb-weaving spiders native to both North and South America.
Transcript (Edited for clarity):
RUDY MANCKE:
Hi, this is Rudy Mancke from USC for NatureNotes.
Joanne is a trail monitor for the Palmetto Trail. And she was out on one of the Leesburg Road segments, and saw a really big spider and just wondered what she was looking at specifically.
I mean really big spider — large body, black hair-like, you know, projections on a number of the legs. And then when she looked at the back of the abdomen, which was big and flattened a little bit, there were white spots on it.
And that was all I needed to know that that's the golden silk spider. People used to call them banana spiders — I think they still do in Florida. Tropical species that is moving its range. It started only along the coast, now it's all over much of the state.
