Jungle Huntsman Spider Reaches 3.59 Metres per Second in Speed Tests

A jungle huntsman spider reached a top speed of 3.59 metres per second during laboratory tests, the highest figure recorded in a study of 258 spider species. @NewScientist reported the result from fieldwork and prior data compiled by researchers at Imperial College London and partner institutions.

The team collected 162 live species from the UK, North America, southern Europe and Australia, plus dozens more from pet shops.

They weighed each specimen and timed runs across A4 or A3 grid paper. Most spiders were prompted with a paintbrush; tarantulas required puffs of compressed air. Speed records for an additional 96 species came from previously published studies.

The 3-gram jungle huntsman outperformed the Moroccan flic-flac spider, which holds an official mark of 1.7 metres per second using a rolling motion on sand dunes that some researchers do not classify as running. The orange goblin spider, weighing 0.1 milligrams, moved faster than 20 centimetres per second.

After correcting for body size and shared ancestry, the analysis associated higher speeds with relatively longer legs but found no link to leg slenderness or whether spiders live upside down.

Christofer Clemente of the University of the Sunshine Coast noted that the jungle huntsman benefits from being large enough for powerful strides without an overly heavy abdomen. ” David Labonte, also at Imperial, stated that lifestyles such as hunting strategies shape the anatomical traits that physics then permits.

The findings appear in a preprint posted on bioRxiv with DOI 10.64898/2026.06.11.731532.