Spiderbloggers

I have had a few really impressive huntsmen over the last few days. Not in the numbers that Lady B mentioned, but enough to enjoy.

Here is the largest and our most common, just called the huntsman, Holconia montana. This one was on the post of the back veranda (my favourite spider hunting ground) last night. The post is 8 cm across.



The other one that we see here in Victoria, less commonly inside, is the badge huntsman, Neosparassus diana. This image shows the underside, and the badge for which they are named:



I am not suddenly claiming that huntsmen build webs! He is on the glass pane of the back door, which is covered in black and grey house spider webs (Badumna spp.) which worried her not in the least! Most of those wandering are males, looking for mates. His palps are engorged, showing that is the case. Here is his back:

The other guy out and about last night was my long term puzzle - who I called 'Flat Guy'. I thought that they were huntsmen, but just strange in some way which I couldn't identify. I now know that it is the legs:



He was eventually identified as the flat rock, or flat bark spider, Morebilus plagusius. The family, genus and species was only classified that way in 2002, when the ultimate spider guru from the Natural History Museum in New York, Norma Platnick himself, came out and redid our ground spiders - with others - including Mark Harvey, at the Museum of Western Australia, Perth, who was so helpful to me in writing the book. Platnick runs the World Spider Catalogue:

http://research.amnh.org/entomology/spiders/catalog/INTRO1.html

There are no behavioural studies on these spiders at all. They are very very flat and very shy, moving quickly into spaces you would swear don't exist. I find them even more often than huntsmen, often under books in the shed where I write. You would not credit there being room between the flat book and the flat table for a largish spider. They are often under flower pots. The one in the image would have a leg span of about 6 cm, I would guess. That's as large as I see.

I am very keen to hear from anyone who sees these spiders. They make circular white egg sacs, usually in paris, about the size of a ten cent coin. I have now carefully watched two sets with the females on guard nearby - down in crevices. Neither hatched, yet I see lots of young around. I'd better start a forum for them!

The huntsmen and flat rock spider are gorgeous! I wish I had such nice largish flat spiders here. We do not have many large native spiders. The largest I can think of is Dolomedes tenebrosus. They are a fishing spider, or nursery spider. The largest I have seen has a leg span of about 6 cm. I am very fond of your huntsmen spiders. We don't have any Sparassidae of which I am aware. I know their is supposed to be a species in southern US that was introduced by fruit shipments from central america, but I don't know much about them.

Dolomedes are supposed to be common here, but I have never seen them, and I really want to. I will ask you more in the Spider Story forum. I need pointers on how to find them.

Most people would not envy us our large spiders. The huntsmen are the most common cause of fear even thought they are harmless - they move so unpredictably and suddenly appear. The large guy was in the kitchen last night, No idea where he is now - so he cold just appear anywhere in the house.

I am very very pleased to have Morebilus. Anything I can observe is new knowledge but they are pretty hard to see and photograph. I could spend all day every day watching spiders. But I have a new book to write and doctoral scholarship to do it, so I can't be slack. Good fun, though!

I found this one in Kruger park last July, hiding under a rock. It had a body length of about 3cm, and the legs had the same forward pinting aspect as the flat spider you showed. The ranger called it a flat rock spider, but I suspect he may have made that up. It is descriptive though.

That's interesting. It doesn't look like my Morebilus plagusius, but there are lots of other Morebilus. Do you have a photo with the full legs showing? Was it really so flat that you thought it was squashed? Thats what mine looks like. But they were hard to classify, and have moved families a few times. Morebilus plagusius, family Trochanteriidae was Hemicloea major, family Gnaphosidae: http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/apig/galleries/Hemicloea_major/Hemicloea_major.htm - the reference given on this page is the only one I found on their behaviour, and it was about releasing lab bred young.

Had the good fortune to be in the vicinity when a cocky was removing a tree that had fallen in the wild weather of last week. Before he chainsawed it all to pieces we pulled off the bark to see what we could see. A very large huntsman, probably Holconia montana , and a mass of her little ones, scattered in every direction. I've guessed at the species based on your picture at the top of this topic, it looks exactly the same. The young ones, however, look quite different. The adult was as big as any huntsman I have seen, and though I'm not frightened of spiders at all, it's hard to get used to them whipping out from behind the bark, and racing up your arm!

What stunning photos! She certainly looks like Holoconia. Alan Henderson, from Melbourne Museum, said Helen (whose sex life was unceremoniously exposed in my book) was the largest huntsman he had ever seen. The females are huge. And the babies are cute! I love seeing such wonderful photographs. Obsessed as I am now by spiders, if one ran up my arm I would jump and (possibly) scream and overreact. I adore them - but prefer them where I know what they are doing, and that I won't hurt them. I know they won't hurt me.

I've been enjoying the book. Didn't get enough time last weekend, but this one is a three dayer!!