Huntsman Spiders

Perhaps our largest and most fearful or spiders. Coupled with their large size, their ability to run across walls makes them quickly recognisable. The first two pairs of legs are usually the longest pairs and the legs tend to go sideways from the body.

Huntsman spider, Heteropoda, moult Old Huntsman skin left hanging by a thread after a moult.

Most Huntsmen are harmless but evidently are responsible for vehicle roll-overs because they get inside the windscreen and move across it while a panicked driver reacts.

In houses, Huntsmen often place their egg sac in the well of bathtubs; the adults recover in dry periods by rest on the backs of drying towels both on the clothes line and in the bathroom.

Huntsmen moult by hanging by a thread and dropping out of their old skin which is left hanging around.
