Banana Spider: Different Types And Its Interesting Facts

What is Banana Spider?

A banana spider is a common name for various spiders worldwide. Some are so named because they have yellow bodies or live on banana plants and imported bananas.

Banana Spider Life Span

The Banana Spider’s lifespan is approximately a year, with females placing eggs in the fall that spring. Besides, adult males exist in July through September; females grow into adults in July and August.

Banana Spider Myth

The widespread urban legend that many spiders swallowed in a dream has no basis in reality. A sleeping person makes all kinds of noises and vibrations while breathing, heartbeat, snoring, etc., which warn all spiders of danger.

Hunting spiders are giant and fast. They often trigger arachnophobic reactions in susceptible people and are the subject of many superstitions, exaggerations, and myths. The banana spider myth claims that the Huntsman spider lays its eggs on banana flowers, causing spiders to reside in the bananas’ tips in hopes of terrorizing an unsuspecting consumer. This is supposed to explain why monkeys supposedly peel bananas from the “wrong” side.

According to another urban legend, papa’s long legs (Pholcidae) have potent venom, but their fangs are too short of releasing the poison. This myth could have originated due to its resemblance to the brown recluse spider. A 2004 episode of Discovery Channel’s MythBusters revealed that host Adam Savage survived a bite from a father’s long legs.

A modern myth describes a young woman who discovered that her beehive hairstyle filled with black widow spiders. So the legend of Spider Bite originated in Europe in the late 1970s. Furthermore, in most versions of this story, a spider bites a young beach-goer on the cheek while on vacation. However, after seeing a doctor about the resulting swelling, hundreds of tiny spiders discovered popping out of their wound with lancets, driving the victim insane.

Is Banana Spider Poisonous?

Among the different genus, only the Brazilian wandering spider is considered deadly, and it is not always so. Unfortunately, two children died of bites from the same spider in Sao Sebastiao, Brazil. However, some banana plantation workers have reported mild reactions after being bitten.

Experts consider this is because these spiders don’t always release all of their malice at once but instead sometimes produce dry bites.

Banana Spider Location

Different banana spiders live in other parts of the world. Those found in banana plants live in Central and South America. Some known as golden silk ball weavers live in warm regions such as Asia, Africa, Australia, and America, while others live on islands in the Pacific.

Are Banana Spiders Violent?

Banana spiders may look scary, but they are generally shy and won’t bother you as long as you don’t disturb them. When they feel threatened, they can bite in defense.

Types of Banan Spider

1. Cupiennius
2. Phoneutria
3. Golden silk orb-weaver (Nephila)
4. Argiope appensa
5. Trichonephila clavipes

1. Cupiennius Banana Spider

Cupiennius, known by the common name of banana spiders, is a genus of araneomorphic spiders from the Trechaleidae family named Eugène Simon in 1891. They occur from Mexico to northwestern South America and on some islands in the Caribbean. In contrast to the dangerously venomous Phoneutria, these spider bites usually have little effect on humans and have been compared to a bee sting.

Members of this genus come in various sizes, from cephalothorax lengths less than 9 mm (0.35 inches) to large species with a cephalothorax length of 40 mm (1.6 inches). Larger species are sometimes found far away from their native range in fruit consignments, often confused with Phoneutria spiders.

Cupiennius Banana Spider Species

By April 2019, it contains eleven species overall.

[Cupiennius bimaculatus]: Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Ecuador
[Cupiennius chiapanensis]: Medina, 2006 – Mexico
[Cupiennius coccineus]: Costa Rica to Colombia
[Cupiennius cubae Strand]: Cuba, Costa Rica to Venezuela
[Cupiennius foliates]: Costa Rica, Panama
[Cupiennius getazi Simon]: Panama, Costa Rica
[Cupiennius granadensis]: Costa Rica to Colombia
[Cupiennius remedius]: Guatemala
[Cupiennius salei]: Mexico, Central America, Hispaniola
[Cupiennius valentinei]: Panama
[Cupiennius vodou]: Hispaniola

2. Phoneutria Banana Spider

Phoneutria is one of the spider types in the Ctenidae family of potential medicinal importance to humans. They are mainly found in North-South America, a species in Central America. Members of the genus commonly recognized as Brazilian wandering spiders. Also, other English names contain armed spiders (Armadeiras in Brazilian Portuguese) and banana spiders (a name shared with several others).

Description of Phoneutria Banana Spider

Spiders in the genus can grow to a leg length of 13 to 18 cm (5.1 to 7.1 inches). Furthermore, their body length varies from 17 to 48 mm (0.67 to 1.89 inches). While some other araneomorphic spiders have long legs, the largest species of Phoneutria have the most extended bodies and the enormous body weights in this group. The type differs from other related genera such as Ctenus by the presence of dense prolateral scopulae (a thick brush of fine hair) on the pedipalp tibiae and tarsi in both sexes. Phoneutrians can easily be confused with several other medically unimportant items, particularly Cupiennius. Chiapanensis also has bright red hairs on chelicerae. Besides, some

Phoneutria species lack red hairs on chelicerae, making them an unreliable distinguishing feature. The presence of a dark linear streak or streaks on the anterior (dorsal) palps and the presence of a single thin black line that runs anteroposteriorly along the dorsal covering may help identify Phoneutria. Further features are the strong ventral marking on the lower legs with contrasting dark middle segments and lighter joints. The ventral (lower) abdomen with several rows of black dots or an overall reddish color.

Phoneutria Banan Spider Species

By 2019 April, the World Spider List recognized the following species.

[Phoneutria reidyi]: Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Guyana
[Phoneutria pertyi]: Brazil
[Phoneutria nigriventer]: Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil
[Phoneutria keyserlingi]: Brazil
[Phoneutria fera Perty]: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana
[Phoneutria eickstedtae]: Brazil
[Phoneutria boliviensis]: Central, South America
[Phoneutria bahiensis]: Brazil

The characteristic defensive posture with raised front legs is a particularly good indicator to confirm that a sample is Phoneutria, especially in connection with correct color samples. During the defensive display, the body raised to an upright position, the first two pairs of legs raised high (which shows the striking black/light striped pattern on the lower leg) while the spider swings its hind legs side by side in a tense position.

3. Golden Silk Orb-Weaver (Nephila)

Nephila is a genus of araneomorphic spiders that are characterized by impressive webs. Nephila made up of numerous species that found in warmer regions around the world. They commonly referred to as golden silk ball weavers, golden ball weavers, giant wooden spiders, or banana spiders.

Golden Silk Orb-Weaver Description

Nephila spiders are reddish to yellow-green with a pronounced white on the cephalothorax and the abdomen’s beginning. Like many species in the Araneoidea superfamily, most have striped legs specialized in weaving (with their tips pointing inward rather than outward, as do many migratory spiders). Its contrast of dark brown/black and green/yellow makes it possible to warn and repel potential predators for whom its poison might not be dangerous.

Golden orb-weavers reach 4.8 to 5.1 cm (1.5 to 2 inches) in size in women with no leg span, and men are typically two-thirds smaller (less than 2.5 cm, 1 inch). In 2012, a tall person was photographed in Freshwater, Queensland, killing and consuming a 0.5 m long brown tree snake.

Taiwanese species are known to grow larger than 130 mm (5.1 inches), including wingspan in a mountainous country. In 2014, a study found that gold ball weavers living in urban areas, particularly in high socioeconomic status areas, grew and carried more eggs than natural habitats. Several possible explanations have been suggested, e.g., an increased food supply due to artificial light or a lack of predators and parasites.

Golden Silk Orb-Weaver Species

By August 2019, it has eleven species and one subspecies:

[Nephila comorana]: Comoros, Mayotte
[Nephila constricta]: Tropical Africa
[Nephila cornuta]: Guyana
[Nephila dirangensis]: India
[Nephila kuhlii]: India to Indonesia
[Nephila laurinae]: China to Solomon.
[Nephila pakistaniensis]: Pakistan
[Nephila pilipes]: India to China, Vietnam, Philippines, Australia
o Nephila p. malagass: Madagascar
[Nephila robusta: India]
[Nephila tetragnathoides]: Fiji, Tonga, Niue
[Nephila vitiana]: Indonesia, Fiji, Tonga

4. Argiope Appensa Banana Spider

The Argiope appensa is an orb-weaving spider belongs to the Araneidae family.

Argiope Appensa Banana Spider Description

This species shows an apparent sexual dimorphism. The strikingly black and yellow females are between 5.1 and 6.4 cm (2 to 2.5 inches) long, including the legs, while the brown males only reach about 1.9 cm (0.75 inches).

In Hawaii, they known as the Hawaiian garden spiders. So they understood to be reasonably communal, with multi-generation specimens living in confined spaces and using the same anchor lines for different nets.

In Guam, where Argiope appensa is ubiquitous, it frequently visited by Argyrodes argentatus who steal the host’s food. So the locals refer to them as banana spiders. And after introducing the brown tree snake and the subsequent or near extinction of many of the island’s small birds, spider populations exploded on Guam in response to the declining predators and competition. But. nature author David Quammen has described Argiope appensa as “almost certainly one of the largest species” found in large numbers during his research trip to Guam for the book The Song of the Dodo.

5. Trichonephila Clavipes Banana Spider

Trichonephila clavipes (formerly known as Nephila clavipes) is a species of Trichonephila inborn to continental North and South America. In the United States. Also, it commonly recognized as the banana spider or golden silk ball weaver.

Description of Trichonephila Clavipes Banana Spider

Trichonephila Clavipes has the size and long legs with tufts of hair for the genus competence. Also, it is large compared to the others: the genus and rights characterized by the belly’s bright colors, which change color when the spider matures.

As is prevalent with orb weavers, a feeling of dimorphism occurs in general appearance but occurs in size. So for linear responses, males are one-third to one-fourth the size of females and slimmer. In addition, this is about 1/30 to 1/70 of a tall woman’s mass.

Conclusion

We believe that the topic of banana spiders and its facts might find interesting. Besides, we put a lot of effort into gathering real data from various resources to help our readers know about such species. So this article helps you know more about what banana spiders are and exciting facts about the banana spider. Hence, if you find the post useful, please share it with your friends, and also we please to know your views. So you can send your opinion in the comment section below. Thanks.

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