The unusual tarantula spider and the variety of its species

An interesting etymological story, to which the tarantula spider owes its name. All sources cite an example from the Italian Renaissance.

In those days, in the city of Tarento, they were very afraid of one of the species of our spider, it was believed that his bite of the tarantula was almost deadly. To facilitate the fate of the bitten, it was prescribed to move a lot and randomly, supposedly in this case the poison is neutralized. Subsequently, these chaotic movements began to be performed to the music, and so one of the most popular dances, the tarantella, was born, and the spider itself was called the tarantula.

Whether it is true or not, it is now impossible to verify, and the spider was not so deadly - there is no more harm from it than from a bee or hornet, although the tarantula spider looks scary in the photo.

Biological reference

Now we turn to the description of the tarantula, the characteristics of its behavior, nutrition and reproduction, give it a brief description as a representative of the animal world.

Scientific classification and lifestyle

The genus of tarantulas refers to wolf spider family. They live mainly in holes in which they spend all daylight hours, and go hunting at night. These arthropods also weave a web, but they use it not as a hunting net, but as a wall decoration in their underground apartments and for arranging an egg-laying cocoon.

By the way! The depth of the tarantula's mink can reach 60 centimeters, and some species can even go down to a meter depth before the onset of cold weather!

Tarantulas are often confused with tarantulas spidersThis was greatly facilitated by the fact that in some languages ​​the word “tarantula” refers to representatives of this family, and even if we discard differences in size, these arthropods are similar to each other.

Remember! Tarantula from the family of wolf spiders, tarantulas from the family of tarantulas!

The main difference between the two families in the structure and work of the healer. In wolves, they move towards each other, in tarantulas in parallel.

Description

What does a tarantula look like? These are quite large spiders, reaching in the span of the paws 30 centimeters. Males are always slightly smaller than females. The bodies of the spiders are covered with hairs of gray, brown or brown color, depending on the species.

The largest sizes are tarantulas representing South America, their European relatives rarely exceed a body length of five centimeters.

An interesting question is about the organs of vision of representatives of this family. Curious animal lovers are often interested in how many eyes the tarantula has. We answer - he already has eight of them, which allows you to view the entire panorama around both horizontally and vertically.

Food

It is also important to know what tarantulas eat. This is especially true for those arthropod lovers who are going to breed them in their own apartment. And what, as the character of "Twelve Chairs" said: "To whom and the mare the bride!".

So, the night hunter eats everything below growth. It can be an insect, and arachnids of another species, and even small mammals and birds. Digestion in tarantulas, like many other spiders, is external.First, the predator introduces poison and digestive juices into the victim’s body, which decompose the victim’s tissues, and only then absorbs the digested substrate.

Spread

The question is, where are the tarantulas, the most popular among arachnophobes, people who are afraid of spiders. In this regard, residents of central Russia and regions with similar or more severe climatic conditions can be calm. Here the tarantula can only be found in various zoos and apartments of enthusiasts, fans of Spider-Man.

But in the south of our country, our neighboring countries, the south of Europe, the African, Asian and American continents, tarantulas are found in large numbers.

Reference! Currently, scientists have identified more than 200 species of tarantula spider.

Breeding

Tarantula spiders breed like representatives of other spider families, but still there are some peculiarities. First of all, this is the famous mating dance, according to which the spider recognizes the male exactly his appearance. In general, the mating process can be divided into the following stages:

1. At the end of summer, the male decides that it is time to extend his tarantula genus and goes in search of the female.
2. Having found the alleged bride, he begins to perform a ritual dance.
3. She, in turn, looks closely at the gentleman, and if she decides that he is the man of her dreams and belongs to the same kind, she begins to answer him, copying the dance steps.
4. After such identification, the pairing itself takes place, after which the groom hurries to quickly retire, until the missus decided to eat him. I must say that in this respect the males of the tarantula are more agile than the representatives of the male population of other spiders.

Then the female finds a mink suitable for wintering, where she spends the entire winter season. With the onset of spring, she crawls out of the house and exposes the abdomen under the warm rays of the young sun.

Eggs begin to form in the female body warmed by solar warmth, up to 700 pieces, depending on the species. At the end of this process, a female from a web weaves a cocoon directly on her stomach, where she places the formed eggs.

And so she wears her offspring on herself until the young begin to hatch. Feeling this moment, the young mother gnaws at the cocoon and lets the children go free.

However, the children do not leave their mother, but move to her back, where she carries them until they learn to eat on their own.

Bites

Here we will reveal the secret of whether a tarantula is dangerous for a person. Undoubtedly, the spider bites painfully, in any case, the bitten ones noted that it looks like if a bee stung you.

One of the effective ways of what to do if a tarantula has bitten is to use the antidote contained directly in the body of the spider. It is enough to crush the animal and grease the bite with juices, then the pain will decrease, and the wound will heal faster.

To the question of whether the tarantula is poisonous or not, we will also answer in the affirmative, otherwise how would he kill his victims. However, for a person, his poison is not dangerous, unless there is an individual intolerance or allergy to bites.

Types of spiders

As we mentioned above, there are over two hundred species of tarantulas, even a simple listing of their Latin names will take up a lot of space, so in our review we will mention only those that are most popular among lovers of these animals.

South Russian

South Russian Tarantula, it is also called misgir, as the name implies, is found in the south of our country. Depending on the external conditions, the color of this individual of this species changes from gray to brown. The females are three centimeters in size, the males are a centimeter and a half smaller.

With climate warming, the habitat of the South Russian tarantulas is expanding, soon we will meet them in the middle lane, then the prefix “south” can be discarded.

Apulian

The Apulian tarantula, it is also called the real one, is twice as large as the domestic species.Apulian females reach a size of seven centimeters.

This type of spider is widespread throughout the Mediterranean countries, both in southern Europe and northern Africa. Minks of this spider are located on rocky shores and rocky beaches.

Brazilian

The Brazilian tarantula has a beautiful coloring. It is small three centimeters long, the body is painted in various shades of brown, and on the head and back there is an oblong light strip.

The distribution area of ​​the handsome man is the countries of South America: Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina.

Spanish

The Spanish tarantula used to be considered one of the subspecies of the Apulian spider, which shares one habitat with it. More recently, the Spanish spider began to be considered an independent species, it happened only in 2013.

Polyastoma

This species is adjacent to the Brazilian spider, but differs from the latter in the gray color of the hairs covering the body, but in size it is similar to the neighbor and has a three-centimeter body without taking into account the length of the legs.

Leocarty

This tarantula is from the Australian continent. a small gray-brown spider, the body length of the female is only 1.2 centimeters, and the males are nine millimeters in length.

Black-bellied

This species of tarantula lives on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, in Japan and in Taiwan. The brown body of the females barely reaches two centimeters in length, the male is shorter by half a centimeter. The abdomen of the spider is black, which is what its name implies, on the back there are two dark stripes.

At the end of our story about unusual spiders, we suggest you watch a fascinating video about hunting a tarantula spider on a mouse.