'Giant' Wairarapa spider - NZ Herald

[Michael Szabo]

"A Te Papa arachnologist has identified the spider as one of 10 from the stanwellia species which are similar to the trapdoor spider, only they burrow under the ground."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=11307026

[Neil Fitzgerald]

I saw that in the paper this morning. It would be good to see something for scale as it looks like the classic fisherman trick of holding the prize close to the camera. "a baby possum" and "bigger than his hand" doesn't really fit the descriptions I can find online. It would be a stretch for most tarantulas!

[Michael Szabo]

Yes, a simple comparison with a coin or a standard ballpoint pen would have sufficed in the photo. The story says these spiders can have legs up to 15cm long and a body up to 2cm long so if this is accurate the measurement from leg tip to leg tip could be up to 32cm.

[Byrd]

I think the 15cm leg length must be a typo. Stanwellia and other tunnelwebs don't have long legs relative to the size of the body. Everything I can find online about them says the body length is around 2 to 3 centimetres. At an absolute stretch I suppose you could say 15cm refers to leg-span (not individual leg length) but I reckon even that would be pushing it given the proportions of the spider (one with a 15cm leg-span should need a body length considerably more than 3cm).

I also can't see any way this particular spider (the one in the article) could possibly be the size of a person's hand. That just isn't believable. But if the dude had put a coin in the photo for scale that would have shown its true size and there's not much of a story in "man finds normal spider".

[Neil Fitzgerald]

there's not much of a story in "man finds normal spider".