heteropoda venatoria

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Oh dear Pratim, this one certainly gets the attention, I just struggled to click on it!! It's a super painting of course, but Spiders make me cringe and this looks huge!!

Fantastic painting.

My pleasure Ros P...Thanks... Thanks Gudrun Stahl Sharpley....

I am arachnophobic, but this is painted with such skill it's impossible to just shudder and pass by - it's hard to paint the shadows of things without making them look like the things themselves: so this could easily have looked like a 16-legged spider. But instead, it looks absolutely right. I wonder why some of us are so terrified of spiders? I had a pet rat that was frightened of them, too..

I am honored with your long comment Robert Jones...Thank you very much....

HETEROPODA VENATORIA....WATERCOLOUR....Heteropoda venatoria, commonly called the brown huntsman spider or laya, is found in many tropical and subtropical parts of the world, including Asia, some Mascarene and Caribbean islands, the southeastern US, and (especially) Australia. In Hawaii, where it was introduced, it is known as the cane spider. They are fairly large, some having a leg span of approximately five inches (13 centimetres). Although they are rather fearsome in appearance, they are very easily alarmed by the approach of humans and will very rapidly flee. The female brown huntsman can be recognized by her stout body and the pillow-like egg sac that she often carries under her. The male typically has a slender body, longer and thinner legs, and a distinctive pattern on his carapace. Both male and female are reddish-brown to greyish-brown in color, and slightly hairy. Brown huntsman spiders do not spin webs. These spiders are known to hunt by waiting quietly on a vertical surface (or even a ceiling) and then rushing forward when their prey gets within close range. Their exceptional agility and speed, as well as their ability to contort and squeeze through tight spaces, give them a strong advantage both in capturing prey and evading predators. They feed at night. Brown huntsmen are welcomed in some homes, as they feed on pests such as cockroaches and silverfish. The spider was featured in a prominent scene in the novel Micro, by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston. [INFORMATION : WIKIPEDIA]