1. Created By: Julia Gerardi June 2010

2. Surprise! You were relaxing on a rock, then your foot started to tickle and you looked down to see something hairy crawling up your leg! “AAAAHHHH! What is that thing?!” You tried to shake it off, but it wouldn’t come off. You looked at it for a while, then you realized it was a tarantula! Tarantulas are hard to spot because they are not very big.

3. Come and Get Me!  Tarantulas live in Africa, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, South and Central America, Mexico, and the South Western U.S.  The East African horned baboon lives in East African rainforests.  The Mexican blond spider lives in dry desert scrublands.  Some tarantulas live in burrows which could be lined with silk from the tarantula’s spinnerets.  Other tarantulas live in trees and make a silk tube where they might hide.  Some species live under tree bark and may line their secret little shelter with silk.

4. Cool!  Tarantulas belong to a family of 84 spiders.  Tarantulas are arachnids.  The spinnerets make the silk.  Some tarantulas will make a silk spot and lay on it.  Most tarantulas are active at night.  Their eyes detect light.  The hair on their legs and pedipalps are very sensitive to vibrations.  They get their body heat from outside.  Tarantulas taste with their mouth, legs, and pedipalps.  A bite from a tarantula is painful and is deadly to animals but harmless to people.

5.  To defend themselves tarantulas camouflage themselves.  They will also bite.  Tarantulas will try to frighten their predators away.  Tarantulas also will shed their hair to defend themselves because tarantula hair is irritating to the skin of people and animals. Defense!

6. Soups On!  When a tarantula is hungry they are fearsome creatures.  A tarantula’s prey is insects, other spiders, frogs, lizards, snakes, and even birds!  A tarantula will hold its prey with its fangs until the poison has killed its prey.  A tarantula will grab its prey and suck the fluids out of their prey.

7. Look at Me!  Tarantulas have very heavy, hairy, and large bodies.  Tarantulas have 8 eyes, 2 body parts, and 8 legs but their eyes are not very sharp.  Their head and thorax make the cephalothorax.  The pink toed tarantula’s body length is less then 1 ½ inches!  Some tarantulas are 3 inches long.  The Mexican Orange-Knee tarantula’s leg span is almost over 5 inches!  The king baboon tarantula is about 10 inches and is one of the world’s largest spiders!  Tarantulas come in many different colors.  The Mexican Orange-Knee tarantula is black or dark brown with orange.  The Tiger Rump tarantula is black with a reddish head and thorax and has stripes on it’s abdomen.