City life isn't a good match for everyone, but golden orb-weaving spiders not only seem to survive, but flourish amid the sprawl of concrete jungles, shows new research from the University of Sydney in Australia.

Findings published in the journal PLOS show the golden orb-weaving spiders known as Nephila plumipes -- which are abundant along Australia's coast in both urban and natural environments and, once reach maturity, stay in the same location through the rest of their lives -- sported smaller bodies in areas with more natural vegetation and larger bodies when residing in urbanized areas with increased housing, higher population densities and hard surfaces such as roads and buildings.

"City-dwelling orb-weaving spiders grow larger and could produce more offspring than their country cousins our research shows," lead study author Elizabeth Lowe, a doctoral candidate in the University's School of Biological Sciences, said in a school news release.

This study demonstrated that while invertebrates are sensitive to the characteristics of urbanization, not all species are negatively affected by city living.

"While many species do not survive encroaching urbanization and the consequent loss of native habitat, others have a more complex relationship with man-made changes to the landscape," said Lowe. "We quantified the degree of urbanization of 20 sites then looked at changes in the spiders' body size, fat reserves and ovary weight."

Lowe explained the spiders' better living in urban areas compared to non-urban environments is likely tied to temperature and prey availability.

"Hard surfaces and lack of vegetation lead to the well-known 'urban heat island' effect with more heat retained than in areas with continuous vegetation. Higher temperature is associated with increased growth and size in invertebrates," she said. "Urban lighting also may be a contributing factor as it attracts insects and means more food for spiders in those environments. This increase in prey would result in bigger, heavier, more [fertile] spiders."