Common Science

I've recently been to Japan and whilst there came across one scary looking spider. An Australian girl helpfully informed me that it was called a Golden Orb spider, however she didn't supply me with the information as to whether it could kill me or not. Judging by the vivid "I will kill you" colouring I decided to keep my distance. The only problem was the sheer density of them in this small Japanese forest garden I'd visited. Added to this, they produced their orb shaped webs in trees and annoyingly always around head height, I therefore found myself flushed with panic whenever I turned. Lest to say I never made it to the Coi Carp lake in the midst of the forest. Later when I returned to the UK I researched my curious East Asian arachnoid and found out that they do contain some venom (as apparently to my ignorance all spiders do), but that it was relatively harmless to vertebrates. However, if anyone is reading this for information due to a search on "Orb ...