Posted 29 Oct 2009

Nature lovers planning to volunteer abroad or take a gap year in Madagascar may be interested in a recent discovery made in the African country – a rare species of the golden orb weaving spider.

Growing to boast a leg span of up to 12 centimetres, the female spiders are significantly larger than their tiny male counterparts and are capable of spinning a web of more then three feet in size.

The species was identified by Matjaz Kuntner, a biologist from the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Jonathan Coddington of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.

"We fear the species might be endangered, as its only definite habitat is a sand forest in Tembe Elephant Park in KwaZulu-Natal," explained Dr Coddington.

Other spiders that can be found in Africa include the brown button spider, the violin spider, sac spiders and the six-eyed sand spider.

Category: Africa