
Comments & ID Thoughts
I have no idea! Please help.
- Submitted by:
- Submitted: Mar 26, 2018
- Photographed: Mar 23, 2018
- Spider: Heteropoda venatoria (Huntsman Spider)
- Location: Kauai Kilauea, Hawaii, United States
- Spotted Outdoors: Man-made structure (building wall, fences, etc.)
- Found in web?: No
- Attributes: Dorsal
Hi, welcome to Spider ID. 🙂 This is a Huntsman/Cane Spider, going by location should be Heteropoda ventaoria.
Nope. Has a little similarity, but no. I’ve seen literally hundreds of males and females of different ages. The abdomen on this one is not at all right in color and shape. The web it is tacking down too, I have never seen one with any webbing. Our Hawaiian cane spiders roam and hunt, and the females carry the flat round egg sack around with them underneath, until hatch time when they drop them (and what seem hundreds, but are likely dozens, of tiny speck baby spiders emerge!)
Many things could account for the off color of the abdomen such as the result of eating something green, a recent molt, being very gravid (this could explain the webbing), poor lighting, or having a parasite. Heteropoda venatoria is the only option for Hawaii in that genus (I don’t think the genus is in question), without more information indicating it could be an accidental adventive this is the most likely option. I agree with you though that it looks atypical, which is why I said “going by location should be Heteropoda venatoria” instead of “this is Heteropoda venatoria“.
Do you think it’s a variety that came in on a shipment from another region? I see the ones in Florida are quite different. And the one tagged as rhode Island too. They look similar but also different.
If it came from elsewhere it might be a Huntsman in genus Olios.