Goliath Birdeater Tarantula

• It is the heaviest tarantula in the world, at up to 175 grams.
• Unlike most spiders, the female rarely eats the male after mating.
• When threatened it rubs its abdomen with its hind legs to loose highly irritating urticating hairs.
• defensaIt is one of the heaviest spiders in the world and, for all its intimidating size, its venom poses little danger to people; its main defence is the urticating hairs it flicks from its abdomen.
• It is the heaviest spider in the world: up to about 175 grams, with a leg span of almost 30 cm.
• Its English name, Goliath birdeater, comes from an 18th-century illustration by Maria Sibylla Merian showing a spider devouring a hummingbird. That happens only very rarely: its usual diet is invertebrates, earthworms, frogs and small rodents.
• It stridulates: when threatened it rubs the bristles on its legs together and produces a hiss audible several metres away.
• And it launches urticating hairs. With its hind legs it flicks a cloud of microscopic barbed bristles off its abdomen that lodge in skin and mucous membranes; in the eyes they can cause lasting damage, and this is its main defence.
• Its venom is weak for people and the bite is compared to a wasp sting, although the fangs, almost 2 cm long, cause a considerable mechanical wound.
• Females live up to 25 years; males far less, dying shortly after reaching maturity.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton

Habitat & environment

Wet and swampy tropical forest of northern South America, in burrows of its own or taken over from others

Birth weight

Tiny on hatching from the egg

Size at birth

Tiny at hatching

Sexual maturity

Female: 3-6 years | Male: 3-4 years, after which he dies soon afterwards

Gestation / incubation

6-8 weeks (10-14 weeks according to other sources) of egg development

Litter / clutch size

100 to 200 eggs per clutch

Lifespan in captivity

A documented record of up to 20-25 years in captivity for females

Sources consulted: Kaieteur News; Arachnipedia Fandom Wiki; JungleDragon; Animalia.bio; Wikipedia (Goliath birdeater); Spider Farm UK; Grimoire Exotics; The Tarantula Collective