THE LIFE CYCLE OF 
HETEROPODA VENATORIA (LINNAEUS) 
(ARANEAE: HETEROPODIDAE) 1 ’ 2 
By 
John Ross 3 , David B. Richman 3 , Fadel Mansour 4 , 
Anne Trambarulo 3 , and W. H. Whitcomb 3 
The giant crab spider, Heteropoda venatoria (L.), is known to 
occur throughout much of the tropics and subtropics of the world 
where it is valued as a predator of cockroaches (Guthrie and Tindall 
1968, Hughes 1977, Edwards 1979). Its feeding habits, like those of 
most spiders, vary somewhat and it has also been known to eat 
scorpions and bats (Bhattacharya 1941), although it is questionable 
as to whether it normally attacks such prey. This spider is often 
found associated with human habitation, possibly due to the abun- 
dance of prey (Subrahamanyam 1944, Edwards 1979). Although 
biological notes on H. venatoria have been published by several 
workers (Lucas 1871, Minchin 1904, Bristowe 1924, Bonnet 1930, 
Ori 1974, 1977), the only life history work to date was published by 
Bonnet (1932) and Sekiguchi (1943, 1944a, b, 1945). Bonnet (1932) 
based his study on only 12 spiders (of which seven matured) and 
lacked data on the postembryonic stages. Sekiguchi (1943, 1944a, b, 
1945) presented a more nearly complete study, but the papers are 
difficult to translate and they still lack some data, especially in 
regard to variation in the number of instars and carapace width. We 
have raised H. venatoria in the laboratory and present here our data 
on life cycle of this important beneficial arthropod. 
Materials and Methods 
Spiders were obtained from avocado groves in south Florida, 
near Homestead, Dade County. Egg sacs taken from our laboratory 
•This study was partially supported by the United States-Israel BARD Fund as 
Research Project No. 1-2-79. 
2 Florida Agric. Exp. Sta. Journal Series No. 3798. 
3 Dept. of Entomology and Nematology, Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. 
4 Agricultural Research Organization, Newe Ya’ar, P.O. Haifa, Israel. 
Manuscript received by the editor September 10, 1982 
297 
