Acanthoscurria geniculata
| Acanthoscurria geniculata | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acanthoscurria geniculata , almost fully grown female in a terrarium |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Acanthoscurria geniculata | ||||||||||||
| ( CL Koch , 1841) |
Acanthoscurria geniculata (rarely called "Weißknievogelspinne" in German) is a ground-living tarantula species from the Brazilian rainforests .
During the day she is in the sun, sometimes in shelters like tubes.
Appearance and build
The body hair is black or, if the last moult is long ago, faded brown. The carapace is lined with white hair. The females reach a body length of 9 cm. The males are smaller and less intensely colored. The legs are colored brown or black, the joints have white rings. There are two white longitudinal stripes on the patella and tibia , and one stripe on the upper half of the metatarsus. Long red hair is present on the abdomen.
distribution and habitat
The species occurs in the tropical rainforests in northern Brazil. There she hides between the roots of trees or in shady places under boulders.
Reproduction
The females start building a cocoon around four months after mating . Before doing this, they completely seal off their cave entrance by making the opening smaller with soil and weaving it with spider silk. There can be 1000 to 2000 eggs in the cocoon. The hatched young spiders grow up quickly and, if properly fed , can be sexually mature again after almost two years in the terrarium .
behavior
The species is mostly outdoors during the day. It feeds on different insects and is less specialized than other tarantulas.
The species is one of the bombardier spiders , which hurl their stinging hairs in the direction of their attacker in danger. If they get into the throat or eyes, the stinging hairs cause severe itching. Aggressive specimens of the spider bite anything that moves.
gallery
Young animal in size comparison
View from above.
literature
- Peter Klaas: tarantulas . 3rd edition, Ulmer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 3-8001-4660-6
Web links
Acanthoscurria geniculata in the World Spider Catalog
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hans W. Kothe: tarantulas. Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09367-0
- ↑ Volker von Wirth: Tarantulas fascinating & exotic. Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7742-6821-5