No web at all
It does not spin a web to catch food. It runs its prey down, which is how it got its name.
The backyard · Spiders and scorpions
Huntsman spider
Sparassidae
A big, flat, hairy, grey-brown spider with long legs held out sideways like a crab's.
- Size
- Leg span up to 15cm
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Under bark, in sheds and inside houses and cars all over Australia
Sprints after you sideways, then freezes. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Huntsman
Good to know
Six things about the huntsman
Flat as a coin
Its body is so flat that it can slide under loose bark, behind a picture or through the gap round a car door.
Very fast indeed
It can cover a metre in a second, and runs sideways as easily as forwards.
The spider behind the sun visor
Huntsmen often shelter in cars, and startle drivers by running across the windscreen.
A careful mother
The female guards her flat white egg sac for weeks without eating, and helps the spiderlings out.
Timid, not dangerous
Its bite is not dangerous to people. It would much rather run, and it eats cockroaches.
The real thing
Photos of the huntsman
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Peel back a piece of loose bark on a gum tree, carefully. At night they sit out on walls and tree trunks waiting for insects.
How to help
Many Australians leave a huntsman where it is, as free pest control. To move one, use a big container and a piece of card.
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