Species group · Arachnids
WAnimals has 6 species of tarantula, spread across 2 families (Lycosidae, Theraphosidae).
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
1 species in this group is in a threatened category according to the IUCN.
Recorded in 50 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
For all its name, its venom poses little danger to people, and the old belief that its bite caused a frenzied dance (tarantism) has no scientific basis today.
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It gave its name to tarantism: in southern Italy its bite was believed to bring on a nervous fit that could only be cured by dancing for hours, which is where the tarantella comes from.
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It is from this spider that the name tarantula later passed to the large hairy American spiders, to which it is not related.
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Unlike most spiders, the female rarely eats the male after mating.
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When threatened it rubs its abdomen with its hind legs to loose highly irritating urticating hairs.
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It is the heaviest tarantula in the world, at up to 175 grams.
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One of the commonest tarantulas in vivaria, for its calm temperament.
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Females can live more than twenty years, while males barely exceed five: they die soon after reaching sexual maturity.
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Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 6.
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