The Huntsman

[Mad Aussie]

The Huntman is a large family of spider that grows to the size of a dinner plate. Commonly found the size of a mans hand. This one was about 100mm (4 inches) in diameter. They are very fast. Not considered dangerous to humans.
I found him when shooting the night races at a recent event. He was on the tree I was leaning against about 150mm (6 inches) away. Too close for my liking!

[kat]

Shiver shiver shiver.

Nice shot of a scary looking spider. I would of died when I noticed that hanging beside me!

[Greg_Nuspel]

I love the 'baboon' face I see on his head.

[Iguanasan]

Without going into too much detail, let's just say it's a darn good thing my wife wasn't standing next to that tree. She would have lost her mind!

[Mad Aussie]

These are quite common in houses if you live close to bushland and don't keep your house pest sprayed. On tiles and wooden floors you can hear the bigger ones running across the floor. 'taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap'

They do have webs but build them under lifting bark on the tree or similar. They don't hang down on you Kat. They also tend to sit very still even when you are right up to them.

I remember years ago when I was painting an old house for work. We had to burn off all the old paint and the boss told me to tie back some bushes from the house. I did this and found a giant spider like this on the house boards. Without a word of exaggeration, this thing was about 270mm (3/4's of a foot) in diameter at least... maybe a bit more.
It didn't look real. I didn't think it was real. I figured the boss had set me up.
So, I grabbed a small stick (about 300mm (1 foot) long) and I moved one of it's legs about an inch or so. 'Huh' thinks me ... it's a fake! Then the spider, very slowly, lifted this leg ... kind of shook it slightly ... and put it back where I found it!!!
I went and got the boss ... and he immediately thought I was setting him up and went to grab the spider I stopped him of course ... and I did the stick thing again ... and the spider did the leg thing again. And the boss fainted! Not really but he went a kind of pale green and white colour!

Never seen one that big before ... or since

[Michaelaw]

Awesome spider MA, well seen and captured. Never seen anything that big here in Canada and not really looking forward to the day when I do