Trichonephila plumipes, the Pacific golden orb weaver,[1] is a species of spider found in Australia, Indonesia and some Pacific Islands, which exhibits extreme sexual dimorphism through its sexual cannibalism behavior.

The Trichonephila plumipes benefits from highly urbanized places due to more available food, warmer temperatures, and fewer predators.

[3] T. plumipes is most commonly found in Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Ireland and New Caledonia.

Females of the T. plumipes species resemble those of T. clavipes in that they possess a collection of stiff hair on their legs.

The legs are dark brown as well, with a few scattering black hairs, without the brushes that are present in the female.

The conflicting effects of pre-copulation sexual cannibalism and male-male competition results in the large variation in male size.

The subsequent diversification for the separation of T. plumipes and other Asian/Australian Trichonephila species was dated 10.9 million years ago.

A study shows that T. plumipes were found to persist longer at sites with more concrete surfaces and less vegetation cover.

Increases in concrete surfaces and decreases in vegetation cover can drive the urban heat island effect, which is a result of urban areas being warmer than rural areas due to human activity.

Normally, T. plumipes juveniles overwinter in egg sacs, hatch in the spring, and mature in the summer.

Food resources play a big role in the increased survival of T. plumipes in urban areas.

This diurnal preying schedule is due to the fact that T. plumipes captures mostly Hymenoptera, which are more abundant during the day than the night.

The yellow and white coloration of T. plumipes silk might be the result of trade-offs between prey and predator attraction.

They can maintain their body mass when there is low level of prey capture by eating the stored items.

A disadvantage of hoarding behavior is that the prey items stored may be lost to kleptoparasites or through web damage.

However, a study showed that the abundance of kleptoparasites does not affect T. plumipes weight gain.

Females produce web-based, long-distance cuticular pheromones for males to locate them.

[11] Multiple males can settle on a single female's web and wait for an opportunity to mate.

In T. plumipes, females are polygynous, while males are monogynous due to a high chance of injury and sexual cannibalism by their first mate.

Factors such as encountering predators and depleting energy reserves decrease male survival during mate searching.

Thus, males are choosy about female phenotype or mating status, taking their own factors into consideration.

Males that survive copulation with mated females do not sire more than 30% of the clutch, but if he is cannibalized, this value is doubled.