Spider shipped in with watermelons

[cjreffitt]

I work for a major supermarket chain in Northern Indiana. We had a shipment of watermelons come in, I believe from Mexico, but not positive. In the watermelons, we found this character napping in the corner. It measured about 3 or so inches across.
I was just wondering if you could help me identify it.
Thankyou!

[Eric]

CJ:

You are correct, this is a spider that is not native to your region :-) This is a "huntsman" spider, Heteropoda venatoria, of the family Sparassidae (giant crab spiders). Despite their large size, they are not considered to be dangerously venomous to people or pets (this is not the case with some similar-looking large spiders of the family Ctenidae, at least one species of which is potentially deadly).

Huntsman spiders are valued by tropical hotels, motels, and resorts as "mobile pest control" agents that kill cockroaches and other obnoxious insect pests.

Hope this eases your mind. Thank you for using our website to solve your mystery!

Eric