It's called Darwin's bark spider
and the female has a remarkable strategy.
Like a real-life Spider-Woman,
she sprays strands of silk in one long, continuous flow.
The threads fan out like a sail
and drift on air currents, blowing across the water.
Every few seconds, she crimps the strands together
to stop them spreading too widely.
The breeze will do the rest,
blowing the threads into a single line and a 25-metre bridge.
Now she must reinforce her bridge, because her web will hang from it.
But there's something bouncing the line at the other end.
Another Darwin's spider is trying to take advantage of her hard work.
She must deal with the intruder head on.
The cut line is an inconvenience,
but no more than that.
With hooks on the tips of each leg, she gathers in the thread.
It won't go to waste, as she'll eat it later.
When it's all reeled in, she sprays again.
Out streams another 25-metre bridging line.
How a spider, no bigger than a thumbnail, can produce so much silk so quickly
has baffled scientists.
And it's no ordinary silk.
It's the toughest natural fibre on the planet, tougher than steel.
And it needs to be tough to span the wide river.
With the bridge taut and the ground anchor in place,
it's time to construct her trap.
These spiders can build the world's largest orb webs,
up to two metres wide.
A few hours from the first spray of bridging line,
the job is done.
Now her strategy is simple...
sit and wait.
And there's one final bout of silk production...
shrink-wrapping her food for later.