N. pilipes are massive, widely distributed Golden Orb Weavers. These spiders are really big, bigger than many tarantulas! They are able to catch bats, birds, snakes in their huge nets. Males are ridiculously tiny, but that’s another story. In some areas you’ll find Nephilas high above in ‘sky spaghettis’, cables. But there’s also a good chance to find them on eye-level when they feel save. If so, you can have a close look and you might see males and other small spiders in the web. Getting close you will also notice how much these spiders are adapted to sit in their net all the time. The legs are formed like hooks, hardly suitable to walk on the ground for long. Cuteness factor 1 or 2, when a jumping spider is a 10.
Fun fact: N. pilipes and N. constricta form a clade within the genus Nephila, while all other species form another (sister) clade. This means there has been one common ancestor, from which two species developed, and further divided into these two clades. Surprisingly the two mentioned species in the small clade live far apart in either Asia/ Australia (N. pilipes) or Africa (N. constrica). They are pretty mobile since young spiders of many species use ballooning to get around. That enables them to cross water bodies.
N. pilipes is quite variable in coloration, compare the dark one from Singapore with the contrast-rich one from Thailand. The stripes seem to fade over time too. That´s the reason why there are some synonyms around, like N. maculata. In the end I can hardly believe that these are all the same species, so as always: No guarantee on my identification. N. antipodiana looks a bit similar too, we should have a look at that one later!
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