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Sticker of Green huntsman spider
Bug card No. 2068 of 4,939

Green huntsman spider

Micrommata ligurina
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersGardens and meadows8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

This green huntsman spider is a bright green spider with long legs. Being green helps it hide perfectly among leaves and grass. It does not build a web to catch food but hunts on the plants instead.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
From the Mediterranean to Central Asia, and also in Great Britain
Length
0.6 to 1.4 cm (0.24 to 0.55 in)
Top speed
about 2.2 km/h (1.4 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
It hunts small insects that it finds on plants.
For real!Photo of Green huntsman spider
Picture by Lucarelli. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Green huntsman spider about 1.4 cm long (0.55 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.6 secondsmoves 44 times its own body length every second

How big is Green huntsman spider compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The female has a small black dot on the front part of her body, which helps tell her apart from a very similar cousin.

2

The grown-up male has a dark brown stripe down his back with whitish or grey sides.

3

Its eight eyes sit in two rows and are ringed with white hairs.

4

The grown-ups can be found in late winter and early spring.

you asked

Most asked questions about Green huntsman spider

?Why is the green huntsman spider green?

Being green helps it hide among leaves and grass while it hunts.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Micrommata ligurina
Named by
C. L. Koch, 1845
Group
Spiders
Family
Sparassidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Sparassidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Micrommata ligurina (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Lucarelli. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

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