A second sighting of a Huntsman spider in Napier’s Pandora area could be the last - unless the species can survive a Hawke’s Bay winter.
Cor Vink, arachnid expert and Associate Professor of Entomology at Lincoln University, said he wasn’t sure if the spiders could endure the region’s colder months.
The spider appeared to be the Isopeda villosa - a species of Huntsman native to New South Wales and now established in Auckland.
Earlier this month, Vink said two sightings in Hawke’s Bay nine months apart suggested the spider was establishing itself in the area.
The latest discovery was made by Dene Kirdy, who works in shipping container logistics, while on his lunch break walk at the entrance of the Pandora estuary on Wednesday, March 26.