Heteropoda venatoria
species of arachnid
Heteropoda venatoria is a species of spider in the family Sparassidae, the huntsman spiders. It is native to the tropical regions of the world, and it is present in some subtropical areas as an introduced species. Its common names include giant crab spider, pantropical huntsman spider, cane spider, African Huntsman Spider, or giant mombasa spider .
Description
Adults have a flat, brown body 2.2 to 2.8 cm (0.87 to 1.10 in) long, with leg spans of 7 to 10 cm (2.8 to 3.9 in). The female may be slightly larger than the male, particularly in the abdomen, but the male has longer legs and larger tips on its pedipalps. The clypeus, the area just in front of the eyes, is cream or yellowish, and the carapace behind the eyes has a wide band which is usually tan in the female and cream in the male. The body is not very hairy, but the legs have erectile setae, each of which is marked with a black dot.
Biology
Females produce an egg sac up to about 2.5 centimeters wide, carrying it with their pedipalps under the body. Egg sacs are variable in size, usually containing over 100 eggs, with larger ones holding over 400. The spiderlings undergo their first molt while still in the sac.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Heteropoda venatoria” as species of arachnid. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1147592. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heteropoda venatoria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.