Giant huntsman spider: The world's largest spider by leg span

https://www.livescience.com ^ | August 12, 2021 | By Jessie Szalay

[Red Badger]

Giant huntsman spiders are one of the world's biggest spiders.

An Australian huntsman spider. Image credit: Shutterstock

Huntsman spiders are large, fast spiders that live in warm climates throughout the world. They are named for the way that they catch their prey.

Unlike many spider species, huntsman spiders "don't build webs to catch prey," said Christy Bills, an entomologist and the invertebrate collections manager at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Instead, these spiders hunt down their prey.

There are thousands of subspecies in this family (Sparassidae). The average huntsman spider species is about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) long with a leg span of up to 5 inches (12.7 cm). The giant huntsman spider (Heteropoda maxima), however, has a leg span of up to 12 inches (30 cm), making it the largest spider by diameter; it is often described as being "the size of a dinner plate." (The largest spider by weight is probably the goliath birdeater tarantula (Theraphosa blondi), according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.)

Peter Jäger, head of the arachnology department at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany, discovered the giant huntsman in a cave in Laos in 2001, according to his research published in the journal Zoosystema. Only a few people in the world have seen this behemoth arachnid.

[DPMD]

Hunts Man?

[tet68]

Just NO.

[Red Badger]

With a 12 inch leg span, yeah.................

[Red Badger]

12” leg span.....That means he’s bigger than the picture on you monitor...............

[packagingguy]

Australia has lots of really cool animals but this is not one of them.

[heavy metal]

wonder if they taste like chicken...

[Nifster]

That’s an ugly one

[tet68]

Not my monitor. One that big and I wouldn’t be in
the same county.

[Red Badger]

Imagine on falling out of a tree onto your head.................

[Candor7]

Ping to the Giant OZ Spider!

[bgill]

Every spider that crawls across your pillow at night is twice that size.

[Noumenon]

Yeah, there are tons of these in North Idaho, so stay away.

[Red Badger]

My snoring keeps them away...................

[rightwingcrazy]

Not all of us have inherited an ancestral fear of spiders. This one doesn’t seem to be particularly dangerous to humans, and looks to me like a spunky little fellow. I think it’s cool.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Wasn’t there postings awhile back of some very large spider in Iraq? One of the troops was holding the thing up. I think it was called a Camel Spider.

[changeitback440]

wonder if they taste like chicken...

ask a chink

[UnwashedPeasant]

And here is the North American Mega-Giant Pillow Huntman Tarantula. It lives exclusively under pillows and eats people.

Sorry, my mistake! This is the goliath birdeater tarantula from northern South America.

[harley45racer]

That’s Racist.... Hunt’s Person

[dynoman]

Probably tastes like shrimp.