I have been wondering about this spider that I took a picture of in Thailand:
The body and head combined were about as long as my thumb. After some investigations, I believe it to be a female golden orb web spider (nephilia maculata).
At the risk of sounding like a Wikipedia article, I am afraid I have the desire to pass on some interesting facts about this creature. Golden orb spiders make the largest and strongest webs of any species, which they often use for several years. Their silk is slightly golden in colour and is strong enough that it can even trap small birds (which the spider, alas, does not eat). The female is thousands of times larger than the male and buries her eggs in the ground. Venom is toxic but generally not lethal to humans.
Tribal people use the webs of these spiders for fishing. For example, in the Solomon Islands, the web is collected by winding it around sticks to make large sticky balls which are then suspended above the water. Needle fish are lured to jump out and get entangled in the ball. The golden orb web can also be used as a bandage to stop blood flow and to make bird snares.
There is a unique cloth woven from golden silk of over 1 million golden orb female spiders on exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History. Additionally, the silk of Nephila clavipes has recently been used to improve mammalian neuronal regeneration.
Pretty useful stuff, I'd say. Although apparently it's not easy to 'milk' the spiders for their silk. The closest man made product we have is Kevlar (which is, apparently, famously known as 'five times stronger than steel' - and is used in many products, such as bulletproof facemasks, bike tyres, suspension cables and fire poi wicks).
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