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FAMILY SPARASSIDAE
- This page contains pictures and information about Giant Grey Huntsman Spiders that we
found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - Male, leg to leg 100mm
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- This is a very large huntsman spider, one of the largest huntsmen found in
Australia. The body is reddish grey in colour, with brown-white bended legs.
There is the dark brown dagger pattern on top of abdomen. Pictures show a
male. We can tell it is a male by its larger palps. Female is even larger in
body size,
has the relatively larger abdomen and smaller palps. Otherwise they look the
same.
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- We found the spider when it was hiding under loose bark of a large
smooth-bark gum tree. When disturbed, it jumped onto the ground and ran
away.
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- From my experience of encountered with this spider and other huntsman
spiders, we believed huntsmen's eye sight is very poor. For this spider, it could
not distinguish my leg and a tree trunk from half a meter. When the spider was
running on the floor, it tried to find something for a shelter, it ran towards
and climbed on my leg. When I moved, it knew my leg was not a tree trunk. It
then dropped and ran
to a real tree trunk.
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- Pictures were taken in Karawatha Forest on Nov 2007 early summer.
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- Reference:
- 1. Wildlife
of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum 1995, p30.
- 2. Huntsman
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The Find-a-spider Guide for Australian
Spiders, University of Southern Queensland, 2007.
- 3. Australian Spiders in colour - Ramon Mascord, Reed Books Pty
Ltd, 1970, p32.
- 4. A Guide to Australian Spiders - Densey Clyne, Melbourne, Nelson
1969, p109.
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