DailyDirt: Tarantulas!
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Tarantulas are huge, hairy, and venomous. Thankfully, these giant spiders look creepier than they are dangerous — for humans, at least. While they do pack a painful bite, their venom is actually less potent than a bee’s. There are hundreds of species of tarantulas that have already been identified. Here are a few more.
- A new species of tree-dwelling tarantula that’s about the size of an Alien facehugger has been discovered in Sri Lanka. It has a leg span of about 8 inches across, and has unique and colorful leg and abdominal markings. It’s a type of tiger spider, which are known for being colorful, fast, and venomous. [url]
- Several colorful new tree-dwelling tarantulas have been discovered in Brazil. Red, pink, orange, yellow, and blue are just some of the colors that can be found on these spiders. Apparently, scientists are actually concerned that people will want these colorful tarantulas as pets. [url]
- An asbestos-covered tarantula might be on the loose in Cardiff, Wales. Workers who were removing asbestos from an abandoned house found a large molted tarantula skin in the attic, which means the spider could be roaming around town somewhere covered in asbestos. While it’s not a new species (experts think it’s a Chilean rose tarantula), it could actually be up to twice as large as the molted skin, since tarantulas swell in size after shedding their skin… [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: asbestos, biology, colorful, species, spiders, tarantulas
Comments on “DailyDirt: Tarantulas!”
a pink tarantula...?!!?
wow. I’d still run away screaming.
Re: a pink tarantula...?!!?
Pink is nothing. Look up a P. metallica tarantula sometime, it’s neon blue and yellow and looks more or less like it belongs in a Pokemon game.
Of course, they’re also vicious, mean little guys that move so fast they look like they’re teleporting and have venom strong enough that I’ve heard of breeders wearing chainmail gloves when dealing with them. But when it comes to spiders, you kind of need to take the good with the bad. 😉
My instinctive reaction to most spiders bigger than 1 inch would be to run screaming like a little girl (it’s not just natural fear it’s downright pathologic fear). However the manly me usually slaps the little girl in me and makes me react aggressively by killing any spider on sight. I can barely control it hahahaha. Same fear I have from dogs but with dogs it’s manageable and I can even bring myself to play with dogs that seem friendly.
Which means this article gave me chills down my spine, cold sweat and stuff like that 😉
Still, interesting to see places I should NOT go to. Oh wait, I live in one of those places.
Re: Re:
At least neither of the first two articles had any humans in the picture for scale, which frankly is what I was hoping for. I wanted to send these articles to someone I know who gets similar heebie-jeebies.
So size of spiders is measured in 'face' now?
I mean wow. Just wow.
Tarantulas are awesome little creatures. I started researching them in my free time as a way to try to kick my arachnophobia’s ass, and ended up getting some tiny little tarantula spiderlings to raise as pets. I have a nice 3.5″ Brachypelma smithi (the kind of spider most people envision when they think of tarantulas) and a beautiful little 1.5″ Grammastola pulchripes….I had a Brachypelma albopilosum as well, but unfortunately he never ate much and died last week, still less than .5″.
Cool facts:
-Tarantulas actually have web spigots in their feet, they use them to lay down super fine lines of web as a sort of navigation system.
-Tarantula fangs contain metal as a hardening agent, and the more times a tarantula has molted the more metal there is (this might not be true for ALL species, it’s a very recent discovery and there hasn’t been a lot of testing on the matter yet).
-Female tarantulas can live up to 30 years, depending on the species. Male tarantulas aren’t so lucky – once they reach adulthood, they die hours after their next molt. The shape of a male’s pedipalps make them get stuck in the old molt once they reach sexual maturity, and when the tarantula breaks free it usually does so without the pedipalps. Spiders don’t have very strong coagulating agents in their internal fluid-goop (technical term), so they basically leak/dry up at this point.
Tarantulas Make Awesome pets
Tarantulas also make wonderful pets, there are many beautiful species out that that are in fact quite docile. For instance, one I would recommend for beginners
Is the Pink Zebra Beauty or otherwise known as the Eupalaestrus Campestratus . They are not quick to bite or “flick hairs” at the aggressor. A Mexican Red Knee Tarantula is also one I recommend mainly because of its longevity and hardy nature. In fact, did you know that females can live up to ages of 30 years old?!? One that comes to mind among these is the Greenbottle blue or also known as the Chromatopelma Cyaneopubescens. Originating from a harsh and dry climate, this colorful species makes it an ideal Tarantula for beginners.
For more tarantulas check out http://www.tarantulapets.com and check out Tarantula Facts for interesting facts.