| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Tarantula

This version was saved 13 years, 11 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Mathius M
on April 23, 2010 at 8:36:45 am
 

 

I. Intro 

     Tarantulas are one of the coolest stealth using arachnids. I came across this arachnid in The Tarantula Scientist. I found out that they may be scary, but they're totally "hairy". Most will attempt to kill them at sight, but not me. Let's face it, humans don't know what they're really looking at. Soon you'll find out why they're "hairy", and why the hairs are good for tarantulas. Then you'll be eager to help these guys. Later, scary won't be the word. Maybe a little harmful, that's where the hairs come in, but still very much like other creatures. Now you'll learn all about this "hairy" fella.

II. Relatives

     Tarantulas aren't technically related to spiders. They are arachnids, but tarantulas are the scorpion, tick, mite, vinegaroons, and the daddy-long-leg's brother. They're related because they have eight legs. The tropical and subtropical tarantulas belong to the Theraphosidae (ther-ah-fo-sie-day) family. Theraphosidae is Latin for "small animal",but they should have called it "large animal"!Tarantula's relatives

Relatives of the tarantula: scorpions, vinegaroons, ticks, and harvestmen(daddy-long-leg and mites)

 

III. My Details

     It's creepy how tarantulas are fully covered in hair. But that hair is there for the same reason cats have whiskers. To feel around them! Sometimes, the color of the tarantula's body varies, but the colors stay black and brown, depending on the species. Besides the hairs, the size of the Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula really freaks people out! The leg span of one is eleven inches long! It is three to three and a half inches tall! All that is the size of a Frisbee, and can fit your face!

IV. Home Sweet Home!

     Goliaths live in two places. Southern Mexico and Northern South America in French Guiana and Venezuela. French Guiana is practically the tarantula capital- OF THE WORLD! More specifically they live in burrows. Burrows are holes in the ground, deep holes. Tarantulas either dig their own, which takes a while, or they take vacant ones.

Tarantula in its burrow

 

V. Dinnertime!

     The most obvious thing about a Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula? It eats birds! Not only birds though. They eat mice, lizards, frogs, snakes, and amphibians. They use stealth and strength to get prey. Tarantulas pounce on the prey. Next, they bite them. The bite is fatal. Then the tarantula injects a liquid from the stomach that makes the prey slurpable. Then finally, the Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula slurps its dinner.

VI. Mortal Enemies

     Wasps. A tarantula's worst nightmare. But the one that attacks it the most is the Tarantula Hawk. They paralyze the tarantula with one sting. The wasp lays an egg nearby and once hatched, the baby feeds on the still-living tarantula.Tarantula Hawk: the mortal enemy of the tarantula

 

VII. Defense

     The tarantula is always threatened. How do they defend themselves? By flicking hairs. Those small hairs are barbed and like a porcupine's, so once the hair touches skin, it is PAINFUL! To a small animal's skin, it will stun them. But not humans. The hairs causes irritation to the fragile skin. But if the hairs reach the eyes or mouth, it could cause serious problems to the victim. But if you go outside of South and North America, none of the tarantulas will do that, because the New World's tarantulas are the only ones with that ability. But warning with pain to stay away isn't the only defense. The other is sound. By rubbing its legs together, the Goliaths can make a screeching sound, which can be heard up to fifteen feet away.

VIII. Reproduction

     As you may already know, spiders produce lots of babies. A female Goliath Bird-Eater produces five hundred to a thousand eggs. She keeps them in a silk bag. The mother always stays with the sack. It takes six to seven weeks for the eggs to hatch. The newborn are called "baby Goliaths". After a few weeks, the hundreds of babies are ready to live on their own, so they leave. The lifespan expectancy for the males is about ten to fifteen years. The females, however, live up to be thirty years.

Tarantula\spider sack

 

IX. Friend or Foe?

     We think this little furball is harmful. The tarantula doesn't think that of us, but if we do harmful things, then it will. We always try to kill them at sight. Not every tarantula wants to kill us at sight. Tarantulas won't have to fling the hairs or bite us, as long as we both keep are distance and not ruin their homes or them. The Goliaths and the others just want to be protective of their things, such as babies, or they just want to teach us a lesson for being mean to them. Just keep away and nothing, nothing but bliss, will happen.

X. Close to Extinction

     Tarantulas are going with the rainforest. All the cutting of a tree with the bulldozers ruins their home or flattens the tarantula. If it is lucky, the Goliath will find a new home. You thought you weren't doing anything but stepping on one, but now you know, what damage everyone is doing.

XI. Hibernation

     Inside the burrow lies webs. Not average webs, but you-can't-see-anything-but-webs. The webs obsorb heat. It will soon be nice and warm for the tarantula. It will stay there for winter. The theraphosidae can stay there because it can live eighty days without water and two and a half days without food, depending on the amount of meat it gets from its prey. Water is ESSENTIONAL because the legs of a tarantula is mostly water, and if it is dehydrated , it is unable to walk.

XII. Sleepytime

     Tarantulas are nocturnal. They sleep at day, and prowl at night. During the day it guards its burrow. You can't always see it guarding its front door. It may be inside its web infested burrow. With all the webbing it will stay warm all day.

XIV. Interesting!

     It is odd and cool to see a tarantula with blue fur. Even tarantula and scorpion can't kill. (Still don't try it, you will experience EXCRUCIATING pain.) Plus, a tarantula would rather hide than bite us. If a tarantula's leg is broken it will pull it off- then eat it! Instead of easily wriggling out of its skin, like a snake, a tarantula lays down on its back and tries to pull itself out of its skin for hours.  Male tarantulas will leave their  burrow to find a mate, and will bunk with his wife. He will impress her by tap dancing!

Colbalt blue tarantula

 

XV. Adios

     Now I ask for your opinion. Are Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantulas one hundred percent poisonous? Are they fascinating? Are they worth saving? Tarantulas are trying to be defensive, not trying to exterminate us. Whatever you do to them, or use them for, their bodies for food; their fangs for toothpicks; their homes for paper; them for decor, they are still small little animals that just want to be left alone.

Works Cited

     Books:

 

     Websites:

 

     Databases:

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.