Very Large Huntsman Spider Rescued in Australia

Very Large Hunstaman Spider Rescued in Australia

Charlotte the huntsman spider was rescued from a home in Australia. She’s huge, with a leg span well over 6 inches (for some strange reason she hasn’t been measured yet, though she was brought to the rescue in 2015.) This species of spider is known to grow quite large, and specimens with 6 inch leg spans are found often in kitchens throughout Australia. The largest specimen of a huntsman species was found in Laos, with a leg span of 12 inches!

The huntsman spiders do hunt their prey, typically insects, rather than catch prey in webs, living up to their name. One huntsman (not Charlotte) recently snagged a mouse, though, and there’s a great video of that at the end of the article we link to below. As for Charlotte, appropriately named after the famed spider in the literary classic “Charlotte’s Web,” she’s a gentle and unassuming creature. Her species isn’t poisonous, so there’s no danger if she did bite, but their bites can be very painful. Sadly many spiders like her are killed by phobic people, who refuse to tolerate them in their homes, but don’t bother to relocate them to safer environments, either. Spiders are important players in the local ecology, and can help keep the population of nuisance insects down.

Learn about Charlotte, a very large Huntsman Spider (Science Alert)

 

 

Photo: Barnyard Betty’s Rescue, Science Alert