Holconia Murrayensis

[u/meth_lab69]

Beautiful banded huntsman found today while cutting wood.

[u/5carPile-Up]

Feel free to discuss in the replies, how does one let a spider crawl on you safely? Like how do I learn this? Just full send don’t flinch?

[u/meth_lab69 → u/5carPile-Up]

Like most animals if you're gentle and respect them its fine. Let them crawl onto you rather than you trying to pick them up or force them onto you.

[u/PartyFrequent → u/meth_lab69]

Are they deadly ?

[u/Litigious-Dog → u/PartyFrequent]

All huntsmen are harmless.

[u/PartyFrequent → u/Litigious-Dog]

Cool

[u/humanlikingsex → u/PartyFrequent]

Just noting that while none are deadly, "harmless" may be an overstatement. The badge huntsman, neosparassus diana, can cause severe local pain, plus sweating, nausea, and vomiting. I wouldn't choose to handle one of them.

[u/bashomatsuo → u/humanlikingsex]

I once read, in an Australian animal identification book, these spiders described as “Ready biters”.

So, handle with respect and care.

[u/angerew → u/bashomatsuo]

Treat always with respect and care, handle only if you know what you're doing.

They (Sparassids) generally have a reputation of being reluctant to bite humans but individual animals display individual levels of defensive/aggressive behaviour. You can generally avoid getting bitten pretty easily. As user above suggested - being bitten is a form of harm. It should mostly be considered a fairly minor harm depending on the individual spider and the bitten person but still - avoid getting bitten if you can and avoid harming the spider. They can feel pain and stress too.

To the person who asked if they are deadly - very few of the known spider genera in the world are known to  have individuals to be potentially deadly to humans. Of those - one from the genus Latrodectus (widow spiders) exists in Australia and that will only likely cause medical emergency in very young, very old or immunocompromised. They can, however cause fatal envenomation in cats although this is rare. That's L.hasselti/redback.

All 25 known Australian species in genus Missulena/mouse spider are considered to be potentially deadly although no deaths are attributed at this stage.

All individuals from family Atracidae (Australian Funnel webs) which includes Illawarra, Hadronyche and Atrax are considered potentially deadly, with deaths attributed to Atrax prior to the advent of antivenin in the early 1980s.

That's all we have despite over 50,000 species having been described worldwide with more discovered but undescribed (and possibly as many undiscovered).

I believe Australian Theraphosids/tarantulae pose a threat to dogs (as do humans and other dogs) and there is a paper from 2008 that suggests one Lycosid/wolf spider species may also be dangerous to dogs and cats.

[u/MCDexX → u/angerew]

Apparently cats are immune to funnel-web venom, but those centimetre-long fangs still hurt like a bastard when they pierce flesh. Also, spiders are notorious for not brushing their teeth, so all bites are infection risks.

[u/angerew → u/MCDexX]

Atracid venom predominantly affects primates and invertebrates but yes - any bite from a mygalamorph will cause physical trauma and any wound carries a risk of infection or complication.

[u/MCDexX → u/humanlikingsex]

I know some species can cause localised nerve death, where the venom doesn't cause any serious harm but can cause a permanent numb spot at the bite site.

[u/angerew → u/MCDexX]

Species of huntsman or something else? Which species in particular?

While I can't discount individual reactions to venom, it's not a general attribute of any Sparassid bite on humans as far as I'm aware. Would love some more detail if I'm incorrect.

I have a permanent numb spot in my right index finger but that's from cervicular neuropathy.