Spider Wasp and Huntsman Spider from Australia

bugman

December 17th, 2006 at 1:00 am

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Huntsman for lunch?
Hi Mr. Bugman,
Brilliant site but can it help an Oz/Brit? This glorious sight of (I think after 2 hours on your site) maybe a Spider wasp? She/he took it down the house wall, down 2 steps, accross the garage floor and was last seen carrying it over the front lawn. My husband walked too close and the wasp went for him. Duh…I took this photo yesterday in Halls Head, 95klicks south of Perth, Western Australia on a very hot humid day. We are about 100 metres from the Indian Ocean. Your spider wasps have a banded colour on their backs but I didn’t get close enough to see a band (I’m chicken). Thank you in advance Cheers
Karen Seviour

Hi Karen,
What a great image. In a general sense, a Spider Wasp is not a species. It is part of the family Pompilidae. Upon doing additional research, we found a site that we believe conclusively identifies your wasp as Cryptocheilus bicolor. The spider is definitely a Huntsman Spider, the typical prey for this wasp.