The Giant Crab Spider, Heteropoda Venatoria (Linnaeus)

The giant crab spider, Heteropoda venatoria (L.), sometimes called the huntsman spider or the banana spider (due to its occasional appearance in marketed bananas), is a cosmotropical species introduced into and now occurring in the U.S., in subtropical areas of Florida, Texas, and California. It is presumed to have been introduced from Asia, where many of its closest relatives live (Gertsch, 1948). It has sometimes been mistaken for a large brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch and Mulaik, family Loxoscelidae), a poisonous spider, but it is neither related nor is it dangerous. Some authors place this spider in the family Heteropodidae, due to the uncertainty of the name Sparassidae (Platnick and Levi, 1973).