Cane Spider

Description:

"Heteropoda venatoria is a species of spider in the family Sparassidae, the huntsman spiders. It is native to the tropical regions of the world..... Its common names include giant crab spider, or cane spider." Wikipedia. The spider shown here is a male.

Habitat:

This handsome spider was spotted early this morning in the kitchen sink. I had inadvertently left the window open, allowing it to have free access. So I was on the point of saying that it came into the house from the garden, meaning that the garden is its habitat. However that would not represent the entire picture of this spider's environment. First, I should mention that this species is extremely common in this area and seeing one is almost a daily occurrence and it important to point out that I rarely see them in our garden or backyard. Almost every time I see H. venatoria, it is on one of the following: the walls of our house, the walls of outbuildings, the columns of our carport, the walls of our dog kennel etc. So it is clear, at least to me, that these spiders appear to be associated with man-made structures and I am pretty sure I would be hard pressed to find one in the forest. So the long and short of it is that when it was in our kitchen sink, it had not strayed out of its habitat, it was right in the middle of it.