Invertebrates

Huntsman Spider

Sparassidae · also called huntsman spiders, giant crab spiders, wood spiders

Not Evaluated carnivore Temperate forest Temperate grassland Desert

A huntsman spider is the big one on the wall. Flat-bodied, long-legged, and quick, it holds its legs out sideways like a crab, builds no web, and hunts by running its prey down. It looks frightening and it is completely harmless — a bite is like a bee sting, and it spends its evenings eating the cockroaches you would rather not have.

Overview

Huntsman spiders are the family Sparassidae, about 1,300 species across the warm parts of the world and especially diverse in Australia. They live under bark, in rock crevices, in foliage, and very often inside houses and cars. They are carnivores that hunt at night, chasing down cockroaches, crickets, moths, and other spiders, and large ones will take small geckos.

Built flat and fast

The legs are twisted so they point forward and sideways — a crab-like posture called laterigrade — which lets the spider press itself paper-flat, scuttle sideways at up to a metre a second, and slip into narrow gaps. Huntsmen use no capture web, relying entirely on speed. The giant huntsman of Laos has the widest leg span of any spider, about 30 cm.

Family life

Most huntsmen are solitary, but the Australian social huntsman lives in groups of up to 300 under loose bark, mother and young of several ages together — rare among spiders. All huntsman mothers guard their egg sac for weeks without eating and then defend the spiderlings.

Status

Not Evaluated and mostly common and adaptable. A few cave-restricted species, such as the giant huntsman, have tiny ranges and could be affected by quarrying and disturbance.

Huntsman Spider: common questions

Are huntsman spiders dangerous?

No. Huntsman spiders are large and fast, which makes them alarming, but they are not dangerous to people or pets. They have no medically significant venom; a bite, which is uncommon because the spider almost always runs rather than bites, produces brief local pain and perhaps minor swelling, similar to a bee sting, and the fangs often cannot penetrate skin. They are not aggressive, they do not build webs across doorways, and they are beneficial, eating large numbers of cockroaches and other household pests. The main hazard a huntsman poses is causing a driver to panic when one runs across the inside of the windscreen, which has led to a number of car accidents.

Why do huntsman spiders come into houses and cars?

They are looking for prey and for shelter, and houses and vehicles provide both. Huntsmen hunt at night for insects, and lit windows, garages, and rooms attract moths, cockroaches, and flies that the spiders follow indoors. By day the spider needs a tight, dark gap to hide in, and its ability to flatten its body means a slightly open window, a gap under a door, the space behind a wall-mounted picture, or the recess above a car sun visor all work well. A huntsman found on a wall is usually just passing through or resting, and it can be encouraged into a container and released outside without harm.

What is the difference between a huntsman spider and a wolf spider or a tarantula?

All three are large hunting spiders that do not build capture webs, but they differ in build and lineage. A huntsman has a flat body and long legs held out to the sides in a crab-like posture, and it runs sideways and fast on walls and bark. A wolf spider has a more compact body with legs held under it, hunts on the ground, has a distinctive eye pattern with two large forward eyes, and the female carries her egg sac attached to her spinnerets and then her spiderlings on her back. A tarantula is a mygalomorph, a heavy-bodied, slow, ground-dwelling spider from an older branch of the spider tree, with much larger downward-striking fangs and, in many species, a lifespan of decades, whereas huntsmen and wolf spiders are modern spiders that live one to three years.

Do huntsman spiders really eat lizards and mice?

Large huntsman spiders do sometimes catch and eat small vertebrates, mainly geckos and other small lizards, and there are documented and photographed cases of a big huntsman subduing a house gecko, which is why they are locally called lizard-eating spiders in some places. Reports of huntsmen killing mice are far rarer and mostly involve very large tropical species and small or juvenile rodents, and such events are exceptional rather than normal behaviour. The overwhelming majority of a huntsman's diet is insects and other spiders, and even a large one is not a threat to a pet or to anything bigger than a small lizard.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 10, 2026. Last updated September 10, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Sparassidae
Diet: Insects and other invertebrates, above all cockroaches, crickets, moths, and other spiders, hunted actively at night by running prey down or ambushing it from a flattened position, with large huntsmen also taking small geckos and other lizards
Legs held sideways: The legs of a huntsman are twisted at the joints so that they point forward and to the sides rather than down, a crab-like arrangement called laterigrade, which lets the spider press its body extremely flat, scuttle sideways at speed, and slip into narrow gaps under bark, behind pictures, and inside car sun visors
The largest leg span of any spider: The giant huntsman of Laos, Heteropoda maxima, described in 2001 from caves in the karst hills, has a leg span of around 30 cm, the widest of any known spider, though its body is much smaller and lighter than that of a large tarantula
No web, all speed: Huntsman spiders do not spin capture webs, instead using their long legs, flat bodies, and speed of up to about a metre per second to chase and overpower prey, and they use silk only for a draglines, egg sacs, and, in females, a papery retreat under bark or stone
A minor bite: A huntsman will usually flee rather than bite, and even a large one that does bite delivers venom that causes only brief local pain, minor swelling, and occasionally headache or nausea, comparable to a bee sting and of no medical significance, with the fangs rarely breaking skin
One kind lives in colonies: Most huntsmen are solitary, but the social or flat huntsman of Australia, Delena cancerides, lives in groups of up to about 300 under the loose bark of dead trees, with a mother and her offspring of several ages sharing the retreat and the young dispersing only slowly, a rare example of social living in spiders
Devoted mothers: A female huntsman carries or guards a large flat egg sac holding up to 200 eggs, going without food for weeks while she protects it, and after the spiderlings hatch she stays with them and defends them aggressively for a further one to two weeks before they disperse
Range: Warm temperate and tropical regions worldwide, including Australia, where the family is especially diverse, along with Asia, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Americas, in forests, woodland, grassland, and deserts, under bark, in rock crevices, in foliage, and very commonly inside and around buildings, sheds, and vehicles, wherever there are insects to hunt and tight spaces to shelter in by day.
Conservation status: Not Evaluated ≈ Huntsman spiders as a family have not been broadly assessed, and with around 1300 species across the warm regions of the world most are common and in no danger, being adaptable hunters that live readily around houses and in disturbed habitat. A small number of species are of conservation interest, particularly cave-restricted species such as the giant huntsman of Laos, which is known from only a few cave systems and could be affected by quarrying, tourism, and disturbance, and various narrow-range tropical forest species that are poorly documented in the wild