# Identify this south east asian spider



## leon81 (Jun 8, 2006)

Found it in my parent's bathroom. It does not look remarkable but it is unusually big compared to most spiders that I have seen at my house. 

By the way I'm from the Philippines. Hope this gives you a lead to identify the spider.


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## spinnekop (Jun 8, 2006)

Although the pictures are unclear, it is almost certainly Heteropoda venatoria which is very comon in the Philippines. Bodylenght upto 3cm (a bit more then 1 inch) and legspan of 10-12cm (4-5 inch).


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## leon81 (Jun 8, 2006)

sorry about the pictures...just took them with my camera phone. I did not have time to get my digicam.

Are they of harmless? non-venomous?


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## Gigas (Jun 8, 2006)

All spiders are venomous, but if Spinnekop didnt point out they were lethal i doubt they are


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## spinnekop (Jun 9, 2006)

Leon81, H. venatoria can cause a painfull bite but the venom is harmless.
They are not agressive and will bite very rarely. Almost all H. venatoria I catched with bare hand and I never saw they make even an attempt to bite. I catched dozens of them in Luzon area (Nueva Ecija and Aurora province).
However, there are many Heteropodid species who look very alike and I can't tell for sure if all of them are harmless...
Nevertheless, as far as I know, there is only one specie like H. venatoria in the Philippines. So you can relax


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## leon81 (Jun 13, 2006)

Thanks for the detailed info! I've been able to take new pics using my digicam:

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark (Jun 14, 2006)

Various sub models of this sports sedan are found all over Thailand. Occasionally they come into the house here and the battles between them and the geckos can be unreal. They are incredibly fast as well as huge and having one blitzing around your room can make it real hard to concentrate. 

Yes, it is a heteropoda, but to quote Jager:
It is recognizable only from genital characters. At present, the new genus comprises 25 species from Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Malaysia and east India. Heteropoda campanacea, H. forcipata, H. hamata, H. koreana, H. licenti, H. marsupia (?), H. minschana, H. serrata, H. shennonga, H. stellata and Panaretidius microphthalmus are placed in Sinopoda new genus.


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## rex_arachne (Aug 25, 2006)

how long do they live because i am planning to obtain some specimens? TIA.


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## kahoy (Aug 27, 2006)

yup not venomous but can punch a bite,

very fast on growth and always eat the males...

eggs are carried on a flat circular eggcase...

and eats pest roaches "americanus"


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## arscariosus (Oct 11, 2012)

I grew up thinking that I'm arachnophobic because of these spiders. Kinda ironic though because I use to keep small garden spiders as pets in small Kritter Keepers, but I can't touch them LOL

Now I have scorps and some Ts (But I still couldn't touch/handle them) so I guess I'm not really arachnophobic?


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