A FASCINATING video shows a huntsman spider battling with an eight-legged rival who mistakenly entered his home.
Myke Garraway filmed the huntsman and woodlouse spider fighting outside his home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire on Tuesday at about 2:30pm.
The 34-year-old supply chain specialist was taken aback when he first spotted the pair squaring off so quickly grabbed his phone to record the fight.
Video shows the giant huntsman spider and woodlouse spider attacking each other as they danced around in battle.
The huntsman then prods the much smaller woodlouse who wangles its legs in desperation to try and free itself from the bigger spider.
The woodlouse spider turns and begins to run off after realising it’s probably not going to end up on top.
However, the huntsman manages to drag it back into his web, leaving him stuck.
The woodlouse spider frantically tries to release itself to no avail as the huntsman continues to wrap its legs around it.
Despite putting up a good fight, the smaller spider looks defeated before its victor was able to feast and rip its legs away from its body.
Myke posted the intriguing video in a Facebook group on Tuesday where it has attracted dozens of comments from amazed viewers.
He wrote: “Hope this is ok to post, I’m aware that one is a giant huntsman spider (GHS) and the other a Woodlouse spider.
“Unfortunately the Woodlouse spider entered into the home of the GHS.
“The GHS won their dinner for today.”
Emily Miah commented: “Wow. Fantastic documentation.”
Billy Ireland said: “Never a nice thing to see – but a great and fascinating demo of interactions.”
Astra Carty commented: “I think this is awesome documentation on what happens in nature.”
Loren Mustoe added: “Wow!”
Speaking today, Myke said: “I was taken aback at first, I was heading back indoors as I was working from home on Tuesday.
“The movement just caught my eye and when I looked and saw the two spiders I thought ‘oh I’ve never seen this happen before’ and wanted to test my new camera.
“I was curious to see the behaviour of the two spiders and it was fascinating to watch how it played out and how the house spider was moving around the woodlouse.
“It went on for at least 10 minutes, I probably saw them a couple of minutes prior to its beginning and left when the house spider began dragging the woodlouse down the gap out of sight.”
Spider fighting is common throughout Asia with countries such as Philippines, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia all having different forms of the sport.
In the Philippines children will hunt for prize fighting spiders with the winners fetching up to $2 for a win.
