Rain spider
The rain spider is a big, hairy huntsman spider from southern Africa. It likes to come into houses just before it rains, which is how it got its name. When it feels threatened, it lifts its legs to show yellow and black stripes underneath.
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Fun facts
With its legs stretched out it can be 11 centimetres across, as wide as a grown-up's hand.
The mother builds a round silk egg sac as big as an orange, with twigs and leaves woven into it, and guards it fiercely.
After about three weeks, the babies chew their way out of the egg sac.
A female lives about two years and makes about three egg sacs in her life.
A big wasp called a spider wasp hunts rain spiders to feed its babies.
Most asked questions about Rain spider
?Why is it called a rain spider?
Because it often comes into houses just before a rain shower.
?How big is a rain spider?
Its body can be up to almost 4 centimetres long, and with legs it can be about 11 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Palystes superciliosus
- Named by
- L. Koch, 1875
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Sparassidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Sparassidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Common rain spider, Lizard-eating spider
Where the facts come from
- Palystes superciliosus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by JMK. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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