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Project Noah Nature School
Neosparassus diana
A huge female badge huntsman sitting on glass gave an opportunity to snap both sides. She was about 80mm including legs and very heavy in the abdomen..
Suburban back yard.
I believe the 'badge' on the underside of the abdomen might be important to establish an ID.
Spotted on Nov 3, 2012
Submitted on Nov 5, 2012
15 Comments
Thanks Francis - she posed quite nicely for these then vanished when I looked away for a minute.
Cool series!
Fantástica::
She's beautiful! And pregnant hopefully :)
Oedematous !? Now there's a new word for me... maybe we can expect a new batch of diana in the near future.
The underside is so much more interesting ! -never seen a female hunty this big - almost oedematous !!
Thanks for that info Martin. It's difficult to imagine this raising it's abdomen even 1 mm :) The badge certainly works to scare people when they check the other side of the glass.
That is large for this 'medium sized' huntsman.
Argy Bee it is supposed that the badge mimics two eyes that would be visible if she raises her abdomen (supposedly in retreat, with predator in pursuit). Do you think this is even feasible? The badge certainly occurs only on this species
Whew what a whopper! And that's a great underside view too!
Thanks Smith'sZoo and Atul. I did think about a better camera when trying to get this :)
Lovely Spotting Argy :)
super!
I wonder how she managed that!
You're right Yuko. I was amazed she could stay on vertical glass.
80mm! That's HUGE!