29 Aug 2006
Abu Dhabi: Gulf News readers may be relieved to read that the large spider delivered in a jam jar to our offices over the weekend is completely harmless, according to one of the country's leading arachnid specialists.
Tony Van Harten, who has written a number of papers and contributed to books on spiders in the region said yesterday the 4 inch, hairy legged arachnid was a Giant Crab Spider, also known as the Huntsman in Australia.
He said the nocturnal hunter is a member of the family of spiders called Sparassidae. The variety in the UAE isn't poisonous but little research had been conducted on them here.
"This is a beautiful adult female specimen. During the day they will hide under rocks or in dark enclosed areas. People have no reason to be scared of them," he said.
Killing insects
Van Harten, who before coming to the UAE compiled an inventory of spider species in Yemen, described how his family often welcomed the larger species of Crab Spiders into their home in Cape Verde, West Africa because they are good at killing insects.
"They can move incredibly fast. We often used to allow them to come into the house to catch the cockroaches," he said.
Speaking from the office in which the spider was found, marketing executive, Oasis Fernandes said he and his colleagues were relieved to hear the spider wasn't poisonous.
"We were all a bit nervous to see in the newspaper that the species couldn't be confirmed so this is good news. But we'd prefer it if they stayed above the suspended ceiling when we have guests in the office," he said.
Spider story: The nocturnal escape
Gulf News readers may also be amused [happy, even] that on coming into the office yesterday, staff discovered the big spider had escaped overnight from the large container it had been moved into.
"Oh my God, are you serious?" was the cry of one male journalist who wanted to remain nameless, "Do we tell our editor when he comes back from leave?"
Factfile
The huntsman spider, Heteropoda venatoria (L.) is sometimes called the giant crab spider or the banana spider (due to its occasional appearance in marketed bananas)
Adult specimens have a body length of 2.2 to 2.8 cm (about 1 inch), and have a leg span of 7 to 12 cm (3 to 5 inches). Adult females have a larger body size, especially the abdomen, than males.
It has sometimes been mistaken for a large brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch and Mulaik, family Loxoscelidae), a poisonous spider, but it is neither related nor is it dangerous.
- "Featured Creatures", University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
By Charles Stratford
Gulf News 2006. All rights reserved.
