Heteropoda venatoria (Linnaeus)
Synonymy.—Heteropoda regia Fabricius.
Common names.—Banana spider (Comstock, 1912); huntsman spider (Gertsch, 1949); big brown house spider (Bryan, 1915).
Natural and experimental prey.—Cockroaches, Bermuda (Verrill, 1902); Puerto Rico (Sein, 1923; Wolcott, 1924a; Petrunkevitch, 1930a); Hawaii (Bryan, 1915, Williams et al., 1931); British Guiana (Moore in Williams et al., 1931); Panama (Gertsch, 1949); New Zealand (adventive) (Parrott, 1952); England (Cloudsley-Thompson, 1953); Comstock (1912); Hawaii (Pemberton, 1917).
This (pl. [30], A) is a tropical species frequently imported into northern localities with bunches of bananas (Comstock, 1912; Cloudsley-Thompson, 1953). Adults measure 3 to 4 inches across with bodies over an inch long. They seldom leave their resting places during the day, but are active at night and search for food. The female does not spin a web (Bryan, 1915; Gertsch, 1949). The spider turns the cockroach over onto its back at the instant of seizure and holds it firmly against the substrate. The cockroach dies in 10 minutes and is gradually rolled up by the spider as it sucks out the nutriment (Moore in Williams et al., 1931). The spider does not attempt to bite when captured, but if it does, its bite is said to be painful but not dangerous (Cloudsley-Thompson, 1953). Zimmerman (1948) found scores of Periplaneta australasiae breeding in rock piles in Hawaii; also present were large numbers of these spiders and centipedes which presumably preyed upon the cockroaches.
Family THERIDIIDAE