Nephila est un genre d'araignées aranéomorphes de la famille des Nephilidae. Il regroupe des araignées appelées néphiles. Les espèces de ce genre se rencontrent en Afrique subsaharienne, en Asie du Sud, en Asie de l'Est, en Asie du Sud-Est, en Amérique et en Océanie. Ces araignées tissent des toiles de plus d'un mètre de diamètre avec un fil de soie aux nuances dorées. Ces toiles sont les plus grandes du monde. Elles présentent habituellement un très fort dimorphisme sexuel, le mâle est plusieurs fois plus petit que la femelle.

Synonymes
Epeira tetragnatoides (Walckenaer, 1841)
Epeira durvilla (Walckenaer, 1841)
Nephila prolixa (L. Koch, 1872)
Nephila flagellans (L. Koch, 1872)
Nephila tetragnathoides (Dahl, 1912)
Nephila prolixa (Strand, 1915)
Nephila flagellans (Gerhardt, 1921)
Nephila tetragnathoides (Harvey, Austin & Adams, 2007)

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The golden silk orb-weavers (genus Nephila) are a genus of araneomorph spiders noted for the impressive webs they weave. Nephila consists of numerous individual species found around the world. They are also commonly called golden orb-weavers, giant wood spiders, or banana spiders. In North America, the golden silk orb-weavers (see also Nephila clavipes) are sometimes referred to as writing spiders due to occasional zigzag patterns (stabilimenta) built into their webs, though these occur much more frequently in the webs of Argiope, such as the St Andrew's Cross spider. Diversity More than 150 species (new ones are discovered every year). Nephila spiders vary from reddish to greenish yellow in color with distinctive whiteness on the cephalothorax and the beginning of the abdomen. Like many species of the superfamily Araneoidea, they have striped legs specialized for weaving (where their tips point inward, rather than outward as is the case with many wandering spiders). Their contrast of dark brown/black and green/yellow allows warning and repelling of potential predators to whom their venom might be of little danger.

Golden orb-weavers reach sizes of 4.8 - 5.1 cm (1.5-2 in) in females, not including legspan, with males being usually 2/3 smaller (less than 2.5 cm, 1 in). The largest specimen ever recorded was a 6.9 cm (2.7 in) female N. clavipes (which is now debated to have been a new yet undocumented subspecies) from Queensland, that was able to catch and feed on a small-sized finch. In 2012 a large individual was photographed killing and consuming a half-meter-long brown tree snake in Freshwater, Queensland. Species from Taiwan have been known to reach over 5 in (130 mm), legspan included, in mountainous country.

Golden silk orb-weavers are widespread in warmer regions throughout the world, with species in Australia, Asia, Africa (including Madagascar), and the Americas. One species, Nephila clavipes, occurs in the United States of America, where it ranges throughout the coastal southeast and inland, from North Carolina to Texas.