Giant Huntsman Spider (Heteropoda maxima)

Giant Huntsman Spider (Heteropoda maxima) found in a cave next to Green Climbers Home, 10km east of Thakhek in Laos. This beauty is the size of a very large dinner plate, 30cm leg span!!!. The body alone is the size of my hand, hard to grasp what you are looking at when you see it for the first time. It is considered the world's largest spider by leg span, truly monstrous, especially when you don't expect to run into something like this on a night-time jungle walk! I saw three individuals that evening, two spread out on a rock face like this one, and another one walking around the floor of a cave, looking more like a giant spider crab with the eyes the size of a rat. An experience I will not forget in a rush :)

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