Huntsman size

[SkyeSpider]

I'm currently in a discussion on a blog I frequent and an interesting topic came up. Someone is claiming that huntsman spiders can grow to 10-11 inches in leg-span. I've never heard of them getting larger than 3-4 inches (which would be around 10-11cm).

Problem is, this is what's on the wikipedia page:

"While frequently very large – in Laos, Heteropoda maxima males can attain a legspan of 250–300 mm (9.8–11.8 in) – and a bit fearsome-looking, Huntsman spiders are not deadly to humans."

Is this just another case of wikipedia being filled with inaccurate information, or does this beast really exist?

 

[Pulk]

If you search arachnoboards and google, you'll find that it does.

 

[SkyeSpider]

If you search arachnoboards and google, you'll find that it does.

Uhmm, yeah. There's not much info in the search as far as proof.

Here's the only picture of them I've found with any size references. Looks about 5-6" at most. I'm still skeptical.

 

[Pulk]

how about the first result on google?

"Heteropoda maxima n. sp. could be the largest sparassid with over 46 millimeters body length and 250 to 300 millimeters legspan."

And if that guy in the picture has big hands, I think the spider could easily be 7-8".

 

[SkyeSpider]

how about the first result on google?

"Heteropoda maxima n. sp. could be the largest sparassid with over 46 millimeters body length and 250 to 300 millimeters legspan."

And if that guy in the picture has big hands, I think the spider could easily be 7-8".

Someone posting that on a message board is not proof positive of something very controversial and unlikely.

Even if we stretch and say that guy has huge hands, 7-8" is VERY different from 10-11.8". I need more proof to believe a hyped up number like that. Especially when the only proof seems to be on Wikipedia and message board sites.

 

[Stylopidae]

I don't know, dude...here's the original paper. The size in mm doesn't seem to indicate a size of nearly a foot.

However, I didn't catch whether or not these were full grown specimens (just scanned the paper).

 

[Pulk]

the paper says the (previously, i guess) largest known sparassid is 41 mm BL. if it's the same ratio as their descriptions of a maxima, that would be at least 8.75" LS

 

[8+)]

The paper claims right in the abstract a 250-300mm LS. In table 1 they give 128mm for the males II leg alone!

The paper says that they were caught in a grot. What's that? Then it goes on to describe features that indicate it's a cave-dweller. So, they don't even know where to find it? I guess the problem is that they were examining specimens in a museum, that were collected earlier, by someone else?

 

[Pulk]

The paper claims right in the abstract a 250-300mm LS. In table 1 they give 128mm for the males II leg alone!

The paper says that they were caught in a grot. What's that? Then it goes on to describe features that indicate it's a cave-dweller. So, they don't even know where to find it? I guess the problem is that they were examining specimens in a museum, that were collected earlier, by someone else?

grot is an alternate spelling of grotto

 

[8+)]

Thanks, that explains a lot!

 

[PhilK]

We get huge huntsmans here in Australia!! More than once I've seen one so big I'm not comfortable around it... They get big

 

[ArachnidArmy]

The size of Australian Huntsmen Spiders

They do indeed grow big here. a good reference is the Grey Huntsman (Holconia immanis). I caught one on my mothers' verandah about eight years ago and I measured it's unextended leg span to exactly 160mm or 6 1/4 inches. With legs fully extended it probably would have been 200mm or almost 8 inches. And yet even bigger is the Giant Green Huntsman (Typostola barbata) which has to be seen to be believed and they all run so fast!