Brown Huntsman Spider

Facts about Brown Huntsman Spiders, Scientific name for Brown Huntsman Spider is Heteropoda jugulans". The brown huntsman spider belongs in the Sparassidae Family which was formerly known as Family Hetropodidae. They are popularly known for being hairy. They are also known for terrifying and scarring people by popping out behind the curtains. Brown huntsman spider has long and large legs. They are normally brown in color or at times you can get those that are grey in color. At times they have banded legs. These are some of the features that you can use to identify this kind of huntsman spiders.

Adaptations of a Brown Huntsman Spider

The Brown Huntsman Spider bodies are normally flattened. This is an adaptation that they have got so that they can be able to survive in narrow spaces, rock crevices or under loose bark. Their legs also assist them to hide. This is because instead of their legs bending vertically like their body, they have twisted joints. These joints helps the Brown Huntsman Spider to spread out laterally and forward just like a crab.

Body size of Brown Huntsman Spider

The brown huntsman spider has a less flattened body as compared to the other huntsman spiders. It also has got patterns in motley white, brown and black. The Brown Huntsman Spiders can grow to be very big. They can be as big as a human beings palm or even bigger. Their body can measure up to 3/4 inches (2 cm) for the females or 5/8 inches (1.6 cm) for the male spiders. Their legs can be as long as 5 7/8 inches (15 cm).

Distribution, habitat and feeding of Brown Huntsman Spiders
Brown huntsman spiders are highly distributed in Australia. They live in terrestrial habitats. Mostly, the Brown Huntsman Spider live under the unsuspected loose barks of trees, in cracks of rock walls and in logs. Other places you can find them are under the slabs and rocks of bark on the ground and on foliage. At times the brown huntsman spider enters the house and at times it is naughty enough to enter the car. Once it does this, it is found running across the dashboard or behind the sun visors. It feeds on insects and invertebrates. It is carnivorous, arthropod feeder and insectivorous. This is just but the least information about this crawling creature. It has much information that we cannot exhaust through writing.

Spiders do not have a skeletons. They have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton-(a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals). The exoskeleton is hard, so it can’t grow with the spider. The young Brown Huntsman Spiders need to shed their exoskeleton. The spider has to climb out of the old shell through the cephalothorax. Once out, they must spread themselves out before the new exoskeleton will harden. Know they have some room to grow. They stop growing once they fill this shell. Female Brown Huntsman Spiders are usually bigger than males.
Female Brown Huntsman Spiders lay eggs on a bed of silk, which she creates right after mating. Once the female Brown Huntsman Spider lays her eggs, she will than cover them with more silk.

Spiders belong to a group of animals called "arachnids", mites and Scorpions and a tick is also in the arachnid family. An Arachnids is a creature with eight legs, two body parts, no antennae or wings and are not able to chew on food. Spiders are not insects because insects have three main body parts and six legs and most insects have wings.

Brown Huntsman Spiders have two body parts, the front part of the body is called the Cephalothorax-(the thorax and fused head of spiders). Also on this part of the body is the Brown Huntsman Spider’s gland that makes the poison and the stomach, fangs, mouth, legs, eyes and brain. Brown Huntsman Spiders also have these tiny little leg-type things called (pedipalps) that are next to the fangs. They are used to hold food while the spider bites it. The next part of the Brown Huntsman Spiders body is the abdomen and the abdomens back end is where there is the spinnerets and where the silk producing glands are located.

The Arachnids are even in a larger group of animals called "arthropods" an invertebrate animal of the large phylum Arthropoda, which also include spiders, crustaceans and insects. They are the largest group in the animal world, about 80% of all animals come from this group. There are over a million different species. There are more than 40,000 different types of spiders in the world.

Brown Huntsman Spiders have oversize brains.
In the Brown Huntsman Spider the oxygen is bound to "hemocyanin" a copper-based protein that turns their blood blue, a molecule that contains copper rather than iron. Iron-based hemoglobin in red blood cells turns the blood red

The muscles in a Brown Huntsman Spiders legs pull them inward, but the spider can't extend its legs outward. It will pump a watery liquid into its legs that pushes them out. A Brown Huntsman Spider’s legs and body are covered with lots of hair and these hairs are water-repellent, which trap a thin layer of air around the body so the Brown Huntsman Spiders body doesn't get wet. It allows them to float, this is how some spiders can survive under water for hours. A Brown Huntsman Spider feels its prey with chemo sensitive hairs on its legs and than feels if the prey is edible. The leg hair picks up smells and vibrations from the air. There are at minimum, two small claws that are at the end of the legs. Each Brown Huntsman Spiders leg has six joints, giving the spider 48 leg joints. The Brown Huntsman Spider’s body has oil on it, so the spider doesn't stick to it’s own web.

A Brown Huntsman Spiders stomach can only take liquids, so a spider needs to liquefy their food before they eat. They bite on their prey and empty its stomach liquids into the pray which turns it into a soup for them to drink.

A male Brown Huntsman Spider has two appendages called "pedipalps" a sensory organ, instead of a penis, which is filled with sperm and insert by the male into the female Brown Huntsman Spider’s reproductive opening.