Giant silk spider

A new and rare spider species releases newly discovered "giant" spherical webs in Africa and Madagascar, according to the BBC on October 21.

Nephila komaci spider and spider web have a diameter of 1m - Photo: BBC

Dr. Matjaz Kuntner - biologist of the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences - and his colleague Jonathan Coddington from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC, USA) - discovered the new spider This is called Nephila komaci. They describe it as the largest known silk gut.

The Nephila komaci spider is larger than a male spider, with a stride of up to 12cm long, and is capable of spreading spider webs of 1m in diameter. According to Dr. Kuntner, it is possible that evolutionary pressure has forced a larger female spider to give birth.