Meet My "Camera-shy" Friend
I had a brief encounter last night with this huge Huntsman spider that had taken up residency in a small area just outside my room. I chanced up on while it was resting on the side of our old, broken fridge, out in the back of our house. It likes to come out at night from its hiding place under the old fridge, to prowl and hunt on the floor for cockroaches and other little creatures.
This creature has been hunting in this area for several weeks now, and I have noticed a considerable reduction on the numbers of cockroaches out here at night. Those that managed to stay uneaten have taken to hanging out "at altitude", by staying high up on the walls, a behavior I've noticed only recently.
Anyway, my previous encounters with this spider were only brief enough for me to spot it, only for it to flee to the safety of the underside of the old fridge. Last night's spotting was a lucky one. It didn't flee, so I quickly dashed back into my room to get a flashlight and my phone to take some pictures.
After my first shot above, I was pleased that I didn't scare it away. So, I turned on the flash of my phone's camera to provide better illumination for the next shots. Then, your intrepid scribe also moved closer until his face was just some 7 or 8 inches away from the speedy diabolical package of fangs, furry legs, and fright.
Some Quick Facts
Huntsman spiders are members of the family Sparassidae (formerly Heteropodidae). They are known by this name because of their speed and mode of hunting prey.
There are more than a thousand species of Sparassidae, and occur throughout the warm temperate and tropical areas of the world, ranging from Australia, Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Americas.
They are called many names, such as wood spiders, giant crab spiders, rain spiders, and lizard-eating spiders. They are called "crab spiders" because their legs twist forward in a crab-like fashion.
They are large eight-eyed spiders, and average about 6-inches in leg span. Many species grow very large, such as the giant huntsman spider (scientific name Heteropoda maxima) of Laos, which is the largest of its kind. It is considered the largest spider by leg span, reaching a leg span of 12-inches (30-centimeters). That's the size of a dinner plate!
Like most spiders, they use venom to immobilize prey. They have been known to inflict serious defensive bites, but none have been reported to have caused any deaths. Read up more about them here.
More pictures
I studied it for a while and made some mental measurements, before firing off my next shot. This thing is about 5 or 6-inches across, and could grow to an even more frightening size if left alone.
Just before it got dark today, I took a ruler and took some measurements of its leg span. My reference points were the two dirt spots near the tips of the legs.
Then, I decided to open the kitchen door so I could face it, and take a picture of its face, especially its eight eyes, which would reflect the light from flash and give me the creepy picture I wanted to have. I also wanted to see the fangs.
But, as I had expected, it fled as soon as it was suddenly illuminated by the flash. You can still see the glow of the eyes, and I guess I should have set my camera to burst mode to increase my chances of getting some nice shots.
Maybe better luck next time, and I hope it decides to become a bit more photogenic and let me take pictures of its face without it jumping on me.
And, until then, I guess I'll have to be more careful when walking out here in the back at night on the way to my room, to avoid an unpleasant encounter with it in the dark, where our human eyes are at a disadvantage.
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