Giant Sri Lankan Tarantula

Cool! Another big spider!:

It's huge, fast, venomous and the size of a human face. For some, Poecilotheria rajaei, a giant tarantula discovered recently in Sri Lanka, is the stuff of nightmares.

..."They are quite rare," Ranil Nanayakkara, co-founder of the Sri Lankan organization Biodiversity Education and Research, told Wired. "They prefer well-established old trees, but due to deforestation the number have dwindled and due to lack of suitable habitat they enter old buildings."

I wonder about the big spiders, and their intelligence. I remember December, 2006, when I was in Australia, desperately trying to break into my host's house at 2 a.m. I went into his garage and was fishing for tools from a toolbox that was also home to a very large Australian Huntsman spider. The spider wasn't aggressive about my sudden, frantic intrusions: instead, it seemed to be curious, and gingerly tried to assess what was going on. When I stuck my hand into the toolbox, the spider retreated: when I removed my hand, the spider advanced. I think the large spiders have more smarts than people give them credit for. This Sri Lankan spider is probably a lot smarter than your average spider!