Curaçao does not have large hairy spiders like the feared Tarantulas in South America, but it does have a large number of other species, most of which are so small that they are hardly noticeable. Most spiders on Curaçao are well camouflaged and ‘disappear’ in their natural environment. They are mainly brownish and greyish in colour and therefore do not stand out against the same brownish and greyish colours that are mainly seen in nature.
However, when the rain starts to fall and the plants and trees are wrapped in their fresh green suits with brightly coloured flowers, it becomes noticeable that there are a few things crawling around that have eight legs and are called spiders. The most striking spider that ‘suddenly’ appears during this period and starts spinning spider webs enthusiastically by the dozens is the so-called Spiny Orb Weaver in English which is related to the Gasteracantha. The name spiny spider says enough about the appearance of the animal. It is an angular looking animal with spines on its abdomen that give it the appearance of a cactus. The web of these animals is spectacular to see, especially with drops of morning dew on it. The speed with which they construct that web is spectacular. Every time a fly or butterfly flies into the web with a lot of ‘force’, a large piece of the web is destroyed. However, within an hour it is woven back together by the animals. The insect that was so unfortunate to fly into the web is wrapped in spider silk in no time and usually kept until the spider is hungry. In the meantime, the enzymes that the spider injected into the victim ensure that it is internally digested into a jelly that is easy for the spider to suck up, handy if you don’t have teeth. Spiny spiders can grow quite large, think of 3 centimeters in diameter.
Many species are known all over the world, for Curaçao and other islands in the Caribbean the species is called Gasteracantha cancriformis, a yellow spiny spider. But besides this common yellow variant, we have also encountered orange, light blue and white spiny spiders in the garden that look clearly different.