Will is living out a personal nightmare of mine. The arachnid below, a Huntsman spider (sparassidae isopeda vasta) by the name of Claude, has taken residence in his bedroom. These Australian monsters are **supposedly** harmless, but they can get to a legspan of up to 4 inches! That makes for some large mandibles and long legs, which makes for me screaming like a little child.
You're a braver man than I, Will. I'd like to shake your hand (but the breadth of the Pacific ocean forbids it...)
Thanks for the photo, Will.
Oct 19, 2007
My Personal Nightmare
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23 comments:
THAT THING IS SO COOL.
I'm sure I'd be less delighted about it if the full leg span was captured in the pic - I think I'll focus on the badass fang area. :)
Uhmmm... You're really misinformed. Those spiders never get larger than 4" or so.
Not 10 or 11 inches. Centimeters more like it. We had a huge one in the house last year. Scared the sh*t outta me but we don't kill them cos they're harmless.
Heh, *some* huntsman spiders (eg Heteropoda Maxima) can get up to about 11 inches. Those are not found in Australia.
The Australian varieties don't get much bigger than 3-4 inches, as others have said.
Will- I'm working on my PhD in entomology, specializing in arachnids. You can trust me on this. :)
10-11cm, as anonymous said is much more accurate as it's 3-4 inches. There are only a few true spiders that get larger than that, all orb weavers.
The largest tarantulas rarely top 10-11 inches.
It's been bothering me, since that wiki page says what it does. I did some research. It seems that H. maxima does exist, but it's not as big as claimed (on wiki). Here's a picture of someone holding a (dead) one.
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,558445,00.jpg
I can see it being 5-6 inches, but no larger, just as I suspected originally.
Hope this clears things up for everyone.
Oh man, never mind how big it is, it looks likes it's sceaming!
Holy Frick!!!
It looks like a naked tarantula. Someone should knit a sweater for it like they do for other hairless beasties. : p
Okay, I looked at the pic again and it has hair.. but still.. I think a cute little Norwegian sweater would make him look more friendly...
Aww, that's be beyond cute, anonymous - I think people would be much more easily recociled to spiders and such "creepy crawlies" if they were running around in little knit sweaters.
*nods*
omg, creepy crawlies in sweaters! Spiders could knit their own, and they would be so beautiful. I might feel better about a 3-4" spider if had a sweater... but only a little. 3-4" is still a pretty big spider to be sharing a room with. *shudders*
And a cute little hat with a pompom on top--precious!
Not that I would vollunteer to actually put the sweater on the spider myself. I think maybe I could handle placing the pompom hat. Too bad itty bitty mittens would interfere with its web crawling abilities. Perhaps just a cunning little muff 'round its neck? Or rather muffs, since it has 8 legs. How about leg warmers? Oh dear... getting a bit carried away...
Hmmm... a sweater with at least 4 "arms" yes? ;)
That is a gorgeous spider. 4 inches or centimeters - still AWSOME. :D
Hmmm... a sweater with at least 4 "arms" yes? ;)
That is a gorgeous spider. 4 inches or centimeters - still AWSOME. :D
There, I've fixed the size. Everyone happy?
No, I'm not happy.
I'LL ONLY BE HAPPY WHEN IT'S PHOTOSHOPPED TO WEAR A TINY SWEATER.
...god, I'm an asshole. i'm done, i swear.
Yes! We must have a spider in a sweater! Who does Photoshop?
Oh man... now I feel like I have to try this. I'm telling you, if I make this happen, you all OWE ME BIG-TIME. ;) :P
I'm going to try too. We can have a spider sweater photoshop/knitt-a-thon!
SWEET! I haven't even figured out layering yet so I'm put my money on you. ;)
Woohoo!
Oh, this will be goooood.
:]
Man, the sweater thing progressed wicked fast. Hahahaaa...
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