\u201cIt was just sitting there, happy as.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minchin said she placed a $2 coin beside the huntsman to show its relative size and took a photo before flicking it out the window unharmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a white tail, which I would kill in an instant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Phil Sirvid, curator of invertebrates in Te Papa\u2019s natural history team at Te Papa, said the spider found in Marewa on Thursday was male and had likely spent the winter as a juvenile. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen spring arrives, these spiders will have their last moult and reach adulthood.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular individual is a male, and when male spiders reach maturity as he has, he will have one thing on his mind, and that\u2019s finding a female of his own species to mate with. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe probably won\u2019t feed much, if at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sirvid said huntsman sightings were less frequent in Napier than in Auckland, but there had now been a slow, steady \u201ctrickle\u201d over several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if a small population was living there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the population could grow over time making sightings in Napier more frequent.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the first huntsman sighting in the city.<\/p>\n
There have been several sightings over the past couple of years. Cor Vink, associate professor of entomology at Lincoln University, said spiders may have established a population in Pandora.<\/p>\n
One spider was photographed in a backyard and reported to the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) in March 2025.<\/p>\n