Black Wood Spider

Nephila kuhli

Nephila kuhli is an orb weaving spider found from tropical India through SE Asia to north Australia.
Black Wood Spider, Nephila Kuhlii  Black Wood Spider,Geotagged,Indonesia,Nephila kuhlii,Spring

Appearance

Size: Female: 50-60 mm; Male: 5-6 mm.
The cephalothorax is thin and flat with the cephalus raised. At the rear of the cephalus, there are two short horn-like projections. The abdomen is long, rounded, widest and truncated in the front, narrowing gradually to a rounded posterior. The abdomen covers pedicel and spinnerets. The legs are very long and red in colour. The front legs are about twice as long as the spider, thin, brittle and swollen at the joints. There is a longitudinal row of short spines on the femora. Carapace and abdomen is black in colour. The male is reddish brown in colour and hangs on the edge of the web and is very smaller than the female.
Black Wood Spider, Nephila Kuhlii  Black Wood Spider,Geotagged,Indonesia,Nephila kuhlii,Summer

Distribution

India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, China, Japan, Northern Australia.
Nephila kuhlii Here is a very interesting spider. This image fits the visual definition of the kuhlii; black body, red legs. I also link a closer look at the side view.

BUT, then there is the third linked view. It still has the red legs and black knees, but the abdomen dorsal kind of looks more like pilipes. In fact, all the features of pilipes are actually ghosted in on kuhlii.

Personally, I do not believe that kuhlii is a separate species. I cannot say if they are interbreeding, as the males of both specimens look identical. I cannot explain what is going on, but some butterflies display color variations within species, I think that this is a similar thing. I could get images for the entire spectrum between full kuhlii and pilipes.

Location is Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. Alongside a stream and paddy fields.
http://www.jungledragon.com/image/38245/spider_gow_black_8394.html
http://www.jungledragon.com/image/38246/spider_kuhlii_3539.html Bandung,Geotagged,Indonesia,Java,Nephila kuhlii,Summer,West Java,giant wood spider,golden orb weaver,kuhlii,nephila,pilipes

Habitat

Primary and secondary forests, wasteland and gardens.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

http://eol.org/pages/1193399/overview
http://www.southindianspiders.org/south-indian-spiders3.htm
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassArachnida
OrderAraneae
FamilyNephilidae
GenusNephila
SpeciesNephila kuhli