world’s fastest – A huntsman spider from Queensland, Australia, has been crowned the fastest spider in the world, reaching a top speed of 3.59 metres per second. The result comes from a global study that challenged the current official speed record for the Moroccan flic-flac sp
On a test grid in Australia, a Queensland huntsman spider hit 3.59 metres per second—fast enough that it landed new claim to the title of the world’s fastest spider.
The animal is the 3-gram jungle huntsman spider (Heteropoda jugulans). and its sprint speed is now being treated as a record-worthy benchmark in a global study that set out to compare arachnids across continents. The work arrives with a built-in tension: the previous official world record belonged to the Moroccan flic-flac spider (Cebrennus rechenbergi). which can reach 1.7 metres per second when startled using a rolling-tumbling motion.
Not everyone agrees that startled flic-flac scrambling should be counted as “running” in the same way. Jonas Wolff at University of Greifswald, Germany, argues the flic-flac method is a special type of locomotion. In his view, it isn’t running, and it only works downhill on sand dunes.
To settle on a broader picture of sprinting speed across spiders. Shreyas Kuchibhotla at Imperial College London and colleagues collected 162 live spider species during fieldwork in the UK. North America. southern Europe and Australia. alongside dozens of specimens sourced from pet shops. Each spider was weighed. then tested for speed on A4 or A3 grid paper. with the aim of mapping biomechanics across as many species as possible.
For most species, the researchers coaxed running by gently touching them with a paintbrush. But some wouldn’t cooperate. Kuchibhotla said the project would have ended in a month if spiders could understand English. He added that tarantulas aren’t built for running—they’d much rather stand their ground—so they had to be prompted with puffs of compressed air.
The team also incorporated speed recordings of a further 96 species collected by other research groups, widening the sweep beyond the spiders they could handle directly.
In the resulting comparisons, the jungle huntsman spider’s 3.59 metres per second stands out. Christofer Clemente and colleagues at the University of the Sunshine Coast clocked it at 3.59 metres per second. and the new framing is stark: this is not a modest improvement on the old mark. It is nearly double the speed associated with the startled Moroccan flic-flac record.
The study points to why the huntsman can sprint so quickly. Clemente says the spider’s speed comes from being relatively large for a spider—yet not so large that its legs become burdened by a heavy abdomen.
It wasn’t just the top performer that challenged expectations. In general. bigger spiders tended to be faster. but the researchers found some species moving far beyond what their size would suggest. The orange goblin spider (Oonops pulcher), for example, weighs just 0.1 milligrams but moved at over 20 centimetres per second. Kuchibhotla said, “Nothing could have prepared me for how it practically teleported across the arena.”.
As the study moves from spectacle to explanation. David Labonte. a team member at Imperial. draws a line between what is physics and what is biology. In principle. he says speed is determined by physics. but what shapes evolution toward extreme anatomical and physiological adaptations is lifestyle—especially hunting strategies. He compares it to a cheetah outrunning most similarly sized dogs. saying the reason is that lifestyle makes that speed beneficial. even though physics dictates the limits.
After accounting for body size and shared ancestry, the researchers’ conclusion is that fast running is associated with relatively longer legs—but not with leg slenderness. It also doesn’t hinge on whether a spider lives its life upside down.
Leanda Mason at Edith Cowan University in Perth. Australia. puts it in plain terms: long legs look like a spider’s “speed gear”. She credits huntsman spiders with the record-book hook. but she frames the deeper takeaway differently—spider speed is shaped by leg architecture and evolutionary history. not simply by size or whether the spider spins a web.
fastest spider jungle huntsman spider Heteropoda jugulans arachnid sprinting Cebrennus rechenbergi speed record biomechanics leg architecture University of the Sunshine Coast Imperial College London
So like… huntsman spiders are basically little race cars now? Why are we even testing this on grid paper.
I don’t get it, the Moroccan spider only does that “flic-flac” thing if it’s startled, so is it really cheating or what. Also 3.59 m/s sounds fake like who measured that with a ruler. Still though I’m not thrilled.
They were testing spiders on A4/A3 paper like school homework 😭. Next they’ll say a roach is faster than my car. And tarantulas “aren’t built for running” is wild because I swear tarantulas just teleport.
This is probably just whoever can scare the spider the fastest. Like if you startle the flic-flac spider enough it’ll hit 3.59 too, right? And downhill on sand dunes… so it’s basically a gravity thing? I’m surprised anyone is arguing semantics instead of just calling it the fastest spider and moving on.