The Giant Huntsman is NOT the Biggest Spider

Heteropoda maxima, the Giant Huntsman Spider, native to caves in Laos, is widely regarded as the world's biggest spider. But, is it? Or does that title still belong to the infamous Theraphosa? This video will be clearing that up, plus going over a couple viral photographs of Australian huntsmen that are commonly misattributed to this species.

Music:

Teller of the Tales by Kevin MacLeod

Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod

Suonatore di Liuto by Kevin MacLeod

Village Ambiance by Alexander Nakarada

[BugsandBiology]

There’s quite a lot of “but tarantulas aren’t true spiders” comments, so I’ll address that here.

Spiders form the order Araneae, and are divided into three main groups: Mesothelae, Mygalomorphae and Araneomorphae. The Araneomorphae are sometimes colloquially called “true spiders”, which is a really misleading name as it implies the other two groups aren’t actually spiders. Tarantulas belong to the Mygalomorphae, which are more basal than the Araneomorphae, but not as basal as the Mesothelae. But since they’re classified within the order Araneae, they’re still spiders regardless.

Saying tarantulas aren’t “true spiders” because they’re more basal than Araneomorphs is like saying kangaroos and koalas aren’t mammals because they’re more basal than Eutherian (placental) mammals.

[karenglenn]

Huntsman are gentle timid spiders, never killed or hurt in my family ever. As kids we had one living in our room named Herman who we discovered was a girl. Never bit us, used to run up and down my arm. I’m the spider catcher in our house as my 6foot tall Aussie son is terrified of them but if I find one he has to come and check it out and shudder. We had a 3 legged one for a while and I found him dead in the kitchen and another different spider had killed his and I was so upset that I killed the other one with the broom, which I never normally do. My son loved that spider too, and we were so emotionally invested in this disabled soul. It was so distressing. Sounds silly probably but maybe other Aussies will get it.

[pennywisethedancingclown]

As a someone with Arachnophobia, watching this video was one hell of an endurance test. By the end I felt all tingly

[_vla]

I love how he sounded all professional but at the end causually drops the f-bomb lmao

[amandas]

During college I worked in a spider lab (working with Schizocosa ocreata and saltatrix), and the amount of people just not knowing anything about spiders astounded me. My professor was one of the only people in the world that had studied ocreata (and wolf spiders in general), and how little is known about them. Thank you for this video! Because of my lab experience I love seeing anything that helps people understand spiders better

[mariosuarez]

In the western state of of Jalisco, Mexico we have the Heteropoda Venatoria. It used to scare the living daylights out of me when I was a kid due to their sheer size and aggressiveness. I once saw one on a wall in my bedroom and tried to scare it away by lightly tapping it with a stick. The spider actually jumped at the stick in a very aggressive motion as if to bite the stick, and then jumped back on the wall. I'm glad I didn't use my hand instead of the stick.

It was many years later that I found out that they don't represent a threat to humans, but I never took my chances.

[ohlordy]

The Giant Banded Huntsman, as featured in this video, is ubiquitous across much of Australia. They're generally docile and harmless and can just be ignored. We traditionally kept two of them at any given time in our house near Perth, Western for each of the kids to claim as a pet.

They tend to roam around at night. One evening I was lying on the floor in my lounge room, wearing just a pair of shorts. One of our "pet" Huntsmen crawled up the side of my shorts. I got well bitten in the process of removing said pet from inside my shorts, and certainly knew I'd been bit.

There are also some areas I've been in around Australia where these spiders are bizarrely aggressive. I remember one mining exploration camp I worked in in Outback Western Australia where the Banded Huntsmen would attack anything that moved. If you touched a wall near one of these stroppy monsters, they'd jump and attack your hand.

[cowboystormchaser]

I mean, I always thought that when people referred to H. Maxima as the "biggest", they meant by leg span, not weight. Which indeed it is the biggest by that standard. It's like trying to compare the world's tallest person to the world's heaviest person. They're two completely different things.

[scottyfox]

As a child growing up in Brisbane my neighbours house was the original property for the block as a farm. They have 3 trees with a rough black bark & on one of these trees there is/was a crevice with a funnel webbing & fairly sizable black spider. After watching Dave's Little Beasties channel I did a bit of research & think that spider is the Northern Forest Funnel Web. I don't know how common these are in Brisbane suburbs but I do hope they are still there.

[bludclone]

Huntsman spiders are mostly harmless but i can't think of a more terrifying spider by appearance

[car-fan]

Just came across this video and haven't watched the whole thing yet but wow! I didn't think any species was larger than Heteropoda Maxima!

[traversemountainguitar]

I keep tarantulas and have even handled them on a few occasions, but huntsman spiders give me the creeps. It actually makes me want to get one 😆. They're exciting to look at.

[StefanVeenstra]

It's their rapid movement that creeps me out more than size.
As a kid I used to be, now regrettably, sadistic in pulling out their legs just to slow them down.
Nowadays I catch them and release them far outside the yard, before any kid get the same idea I used to have.
The movement still creeps me out, but I remind myself it's an irrational sentiment and get over it.

[jayawilson]

Been a subscriber to your channel for a fair while now and I gotta say that your videos are always so clear and informative
, Always entertaining for me as well as educational.

[Weirdandwonderfull]

Still have arachnophobia 😱. I'm British, there's no spider in the UK that can cause me significant harm, and I'm less afraid of small (tiny) spiders now. Once a UK jumping spider would send me into a frenzy, now I can let them crawl on me. Big spiders? Nope. I had an invasion of Giant House spiders at my old place. I moved out 18 months ago and I still have frequent nightmares about the spiders. I spent hours researching them, to try and understand them better to overcome my phobia, now I can easily identify a male vs female giant house spider, but I'm no less terrified. I know they can't hurt me. I know it's irrational. I am trying to overcome this.

[renav.]

2 years ago i was terrified of all arachnids. But i started watching tarantula keepers on YouTube and over time got used to both Ts and true spiders.

A couple years ago I couldn't even have watched this video without squirming. Now, while I'm still hesitant about handling them, i can truly appreciate these beauties

[harjifs]

Got to see one of these guys in a cave while on holiday to Thailand, it was huge but no one got too close to see it’s full size since it was pretty scary.

I’m a lot less scared of spiders after seeing that thing since no house spider where I live comes close in size

[fullonsociopath]

Am a keeper of tarantulas, with a small collection of over 30 species. How is the huntsman in terms of longevity? It's the main factor for why I don't keep jumpers. Nice video, and tarantula keepers feel your pain. Not everything is a goliath, and goliaths are actually quite delicate, not some tanky monster.

[SithMami]

You are ridiculously intelligent, and it comes out not only in the way you care for animals, but also the way you speak. The way you speak is very entertaining to listen to, because you're funny. You have a nice voice, and you speak intelligently.. thank you

[borgCube]

Just came across your channel and really appreciate the spider facts!

They will never not scare me, but I have been so fascinated by them for years to the point that I know so much about them. Very misunderstood creatures.

I'd love to see a huntsmen in person - but again, arachnophobia so preferably behind glass lol (even though I KNOW they can't harm me).