A video of a giant huntsman spider carrying a dead mouse has been going viral on Facebook since Saturday, Oct. 22. The footage not only left people amused but also curious on how big these huntsman spiders can really get.
Huntsman spiders that live in warm climates are large and move fast, traveling up to a yard in just 1 second. They are unique from other spiders in the way they catch their prey - they hunt their prey themselves instead of building webs.
The Australian huntsman spider belongs to Sparassidae family, which was formerly known as Heteropodidae. They are also called giant crab spiders or tarantulas. They are usually gray to brown in color and have long banded legs. About 94 species of huntsman spiders are known to exist by far.
Most huntsman spiders have a flattened body that enables them to squeeze through narrow spaces like loose tree bark and rock cervices. They usually crawl like crabs with the help of their twisted joints, unlike other spiders that have vertical joints.
The average length of a huntsman spider is about 1 inch and leg span of nearly 5 inches. However, a giant spider has a leg span of around 12 inches and in diameter it is described as having the size of a dinner plate. Female spiders usually have longer bodies than male spiders while males have longer legs than females. Unlike other spider species, female huntsman spiders don't prey on males and they usually have a lengthy courtship, noted the Australian Museum.
The females produce a flat and oval egg sac and lay about 200 eggs at a time. The spiders hide the egg sac under the bark of the trees or carry under their bodies while moving. The spiders guard their eggs for about three weeks without eating and at times they tend to be more aggressive to protect the eggs.
"Some huntsmans are dedicated mothers," said entomologist Christy Bills, Invertebrate Collections manager at the Natural History Museum of Utah, reported Live Science. They "look after their egg sacs, guarding them fiercely."
The mother spiders sometimes help the spiderlings to come out of the egg sac by tearing the white papery silk layer apart. The mothers also stay with the offspring for a number of weeks. The huntsman spiders usually live up to two years.
The huntsman spiders may interfere with humans occasionally and though their bite could cause some pain and swelling at the bite site, the resultant symptoms are relatively mild, just a slight nausea or headache.
Photo: Gordon Wrigley | Flickr
