Kim, This spider does not build a web. It just hangs from the guttering outside the back door (has been there every night for a week). I thought this was more like the behaviour of a huntsman?
Alison, a male orb weaver will usually hang around on the margins of a female's web, intending to mate and not get eaten. Huntsmen do produce silk (like all spiders) but don't use it to catch prey; the females use it to wall off a nursery in an enclosed space and to make their egg sacs.
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