They Collected 160 Spider Species, Then Had Them Race

Australia's famously leggy houseguest just picked up a potential world record. The brown huntsman spider (Heteropoda jugulans), a common east-coast resident as large as a human hand, has been flagged as the planet's fastest spider after scientists clocked it at a blistering peak of 3.59 meters per second, or about 8mph. That would outpace the current record-holder, the Moroccan flic-flac spider, which hits around 1.7 meters per second, or about 3.8 mph, by somersaulting downhill, per the Guardian. For context, the average human jogs at 4mph to 6mph, per Smithsonian. Researchers say the huntsman only sprints at 8mph, but can sustain speeds of 4.5mph.

In the pre-print study, researchers in the UK and Germany collected and timed 162 spider species, then folded in existing data on 96 other species, including from Australian biomechanist Christofer Clemente's 2021 work on his backyard huntsmen. Clemente discovered the spider was "really fast," he tells ABC Australia. But at the time, "we had nothing to compare it to." The spiders' speed is powered by a combo of muscle and hydraulic limb extension, unlike most animals, according to the research, which suggests the optimal body size for fast running is somewhere in the middle. The larger tarantula, in comparison, topped out at 1mph. Study co-author Jonas Wolff suggests an even speedier, still-untested huntsman might still be out there.