en.wikipedia.org

Heteropoda - Wikipedia

  • ️Fri Mar 04 2016

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heteropoda

Temporal range: Palaeogene–present

Heteropoda maxima
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Class: Arachnida
Order: Araneae
Infraorder: Araneomorphae
Family: Sparassidae
Genus: Heteropoda
Latreille, 1804
Species

189 accepted species; see text.

The eye arrangement of spiders in the genus Heteropoda

Heteropoda is a genus of spiders in the family Sparassidae (the huntsman spiders). They are mainly distributed in tropical Asia and Australia, while at least one species, H. venatoria, has a cosmopolitan distribution,[1] and H. variegata occurs in the Mediterranean.[2]

These spiders catch and eat insects, but in a laboratory study one species readily ate fish and tadpoles when offered.[1] H. venatoria has also been known to eat scorpions and bats.[3]

The largest species in the genus, H. maxima, is about 4.6 centimeters long but has a legspan of up to 30 centimeters, making it the largest of any extant spider.[4]

As of August 2022, there were 189 species in the genus, after series of revisions.[5][6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heteropoda.

  1. ^ a b Airamé, S. and P. Sierwald. (2000). Hunting and feeding behavior of one Heteropoda species in lowland rainforest on Borneo (Aranae, Sparassidae). Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Journal of Arachnology 28(2), 251-53.
  2. ^ Jager, P. and H. Ono. (2000). Sparassidae of Japan. I. New species of Olios, Heteropoda, and Sinopoda, with notes on some known species (Araneae: Sparassidae: Sparassinae and Heteropodinae). Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Acta Arachnologica 49(1), 41-60.
  3. ^ Ross, J., et al. (1982). The life cycle of Heteropoda venatoria (Linnaeus) (Araneae: Heteropodidae). Archived 2017-12-28 at the Wayback Machine Psyche 89, 297-306.
  4. ^ Iaeger, P. (2001). A new species of Heteropoda (Araneae, Sparassidae, Heteropodinae) from Laos, the largest huntsman spider? Zoosystema 23(3), 461-66.
  5. ^ Jäger, P. (2005). A 'swimming' Heteropoda species from Borneo (Araneae, Sparassidae, Heteropodinae). Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Journal of Arachnology 33(3), 715-18.
  6. ^ Eusemann, P. and P. Jäger. (2006). Heteropoda schwendingeri Jäger 2005 (Araneae: Sparassidae) – first description of female with notes on intraspecific variation and evidences supporting species status. Zootaxa 1325, 327-34.