A jungle huntsman spider during a speed testChristofer Clemente/University of the Sunshine Coast
A huntsman spider found in Queensland, Australia, has been crowned the fastest spider in the world with a top speed of nearly 3.6 metres per second, according to a global study of arachnid sprinting prowess.
Currently, the official world record is held by the Moroccan flic-flac spider (Cebrennus rechenbergi) which can hit speeds of 1.7 metres per second when it is startled, using a rolling-tumbling motion. But some experts regard this as incorrect.
“The flic-flac is a special type of locomotion,” says Jonas Wolff at University of Greifswald, Germany. “It is not running and it only works downhill on sand dunes.”
To get a comprehensive picture of running speed in spiders, Shreyas Kuchibhotla at Imperial College London and his colleagues, including Wolff, collected 162 live spider species during fieldwork throughout the UK, North America, southern Europe and Australia, along with dozens of specimens sourced from pet shops.
