About Delena cancerides Walckenaer, 1837
Delena cancerides, commonly called the communal huntsman, flat huntsman, or social huntsman, is a large, brown huntsman spider native to Australia. It has been introduced to New Zealand, where it is often referred to as the Avondale spider. This species was featured in the Australian film Napoleon and was widely used in the film Arachnophobia. Both movies depict it as having a deadly venomous bite, but in reality it is generally considered harmless to humans. It was first formally described by Charles Athanase Walckenaer in 1837. The species occurs across all of Australia, including Tasmania. It was introduced to New Zealand in 1924, and its range there slowly expanded outward from Avondale, a suburb of Auckland; this origin gave the species its alternative common name used in New Zealand. A sculpture celebrating the spider stands in Avondale's shopping centre.
