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Hollywood Helps Spiders

The Steven Spielberg movie "Arachnophobia" has helped spider research in New Zealand. DSIR spider expert Grace Hall supplied over 300 of the large Avondale huntsman spiders for the film. The spiders, Delena cancerides, fitted the role perfectly, being large, fast and harmless.

The DSIR was pleased with the opportunity to earn some revenue and to speed up their spider research. While collecting and raising the spider stars, Hall made a number of new discoveries. She found six distinct colonies of spiders in Auckland's Avondale area. Since arriving there from Australia some 70 years ago, the spiders have yet to move far from the district. Females dominated the colony sites, and males were the ones found in houses. The spider communities even shared prey at times.

The Plant Protection Division, in charge of the spider research, was careful to ensure that the spiders were not ill-treated. Quarantine restrictions prevent return of the surviving arachnids, and most have been retired to a "Spider Pharm" in Arizona. Heightened interest in spiders, sparked by the film, has led the DSIR and Auckland Zoo to collaborate on an educational display which has proved popular.