Tarantula

Tarantulas give people the creeps because they have large, hairy bodies and legs. While these large spiders can take a painful bite out of a human, a tarantula's.
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Tarantula - Wikipedia

Nevertheless, the fear of the wolf spider from Taranto endured. So when European explorers began to encounter even bigger, hairier and more fearsome spiders on their travels to South America, they just called them tarantulas too. The spiders we think of as tarantulas should, more properly, be called bird-eating spiders or Theraphosids. But, hey, let's just call them tarantulas, shall we? The word tarantula conjures up an image of the Mexican red-kneed tarantula Brachypelma smithi. But there are, in fact, around different species of Theraphosid.

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However, the family is famous for its monsters, like the Goliath birdeater from northern South America. The largest recorded specimen of Theraphosa blondi was the size of a dinner plate, with a leg span of 28 cm. By mass, it's the largest spider in the world. View image of A Goliath birdeater Theraphosa blondi , largest of all spiders Credit: In popular culture, tarantulas are often depicted going on the offensive, as in the classic scene in the James Bond movie Dr No , where a tarantula emerges from beneath the bedclothes to feel its way across Sean Connery's naked chest.

In reality, this is not something that tarantulas do. The camera shifts, angles down into the sac's open cavity and reveals the squirming babies inside … all 1, of them!


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Photos of Spiders ]. That's a huge brood. According to National Geographic , it is common for a single tarantula egg sac to contain anywhere from to 1, babies. But even for Lorbiecke, who has been breeding and raising tarantulas since the s, this is the biggest hatch she's ever seen, she told the Daily Mail. While some tarantulas have been known to actually eat birds , it's more likely that this species' nickname was earned because of the spiders' impressive size; some N.

So, how are spider babies made? Let's just say it's slightly more complicated than human mating. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

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Avicularidae, Theraphosidae, hairy mygalomorph. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: Family Theraphosidae hairy mygalomorphs, tarantulas, baboon spiders mostly tropical species including tarantulas of North America, baboon spiders of South Africa, and bird-eating spiders of Australia, New Guinea, and South America.

Spider , order Araneida or Araneae , any of more than 46, species of arachnids that differ from insects in having eight legs rather than six and in having the body divided into two parts rather than three. The use of silk is highly developed among spiders. Spider behaviour and appearance are…. Book lung , form of respiratory organ found in certain air-breathing arachnid arthropods scorpions and some spiders. Each book lung consists of a series of thin plates that are highly vascular i.

Size range classification In spider: Annotated classification life span In arachnid: Reproduction and life cycle.

Pleasurekraft - Tarantula (Original Mix)

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The truth about tarantulas: not too big, not too scary

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