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  1. Home
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  3. Huntsman Spider

One of the 26 spiders on WAnimals

Arachnids · Araneae · Sparassidae

Huntsman Spider

Heteropoda venatoria

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria.

Spotted something wrong?

Heteropoda venatoria is a spider belonging to the family Sparassidae. It was described by Linnaeus in 1767, originally under the name Aranea venatoria. The genus name Heteropoda is derived from the Greek and means "unequal legs"; the species name comes from the Latin word venatoria, meaning huntress, the two together meaning "the huntress with unequal legs".

Size

2 cm – 3 cm

Diet

Carnivore

Feeds mainly on other animals.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

Rainforest
4countries18parks

Fun facts

  • It is a household ally: in the tropics it is tolerated indoors because it keeps cockroaches in check.
  • Its extremely flattened body lets it slip into cracks and behind pictures and frames with only a few millimetres of clearance.
  • The males produce an audible drumming by striking their abdomen against dry leaves to attract females.
  • It is one of the world's most cosmopolitan spiders: native to South-East Asia, it has travelled with maritime trade for centuries and today lives in warm regions of every continent.
  • It is called the banana spider because it frequently arrives in shipments of tropical fruit, causing regular scares in European supermarkets and warehouses.
  • It is flat, with long, sideways-directed legs, which lets it slip into the narrowest crevices and run at great speed up vertical surfaces.
  • It spins no web: it is an active nocturnal hunter, and in tropical homes it is considered beneficial because it eats cockroaches.
  • Its bite is painful but of no medical significance.
  • The male courts by drumming his abdomen against the substrate, producing a buzz audible to people.

Life cycle and biology

Skeleton type
Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (arachnid)
Habitat and environment
Houses, warehouses and vegetation in tropical regions worldwide

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteropoda_venatoria

Where to find it

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The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.

Where to see it

Parks and dive sites where this species has been documented — showing 10 of 18.

Related species

Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Huntsman Spider — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.

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See full glossary
This page in other languages: Español · Deutsch · Français · Português · Italiano
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CountriesBrazil
ParksEvergladesUnited States
TagsCarnivore
Carnivore
Nocturnal
Solitary
Rainforest
Arachnid
Brazil
United States
Australia
India