Common tarantula
| Common tarantula | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Common tarantula ( Avicularia avicularia ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Avicularia avicularia | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The common tarantula ( Avicularia avicularia ) is a species of tarantula found in Central and South America. It was first described by Carl von Linné in 1758 as Aranea avicularia . Maria Sibylla Merian made a copperplate of the spider as early as 1705 . It is tree-dwelling and belongs to the bombardier spiders .
habitat
The range includes Brazil , Costa Rica , Venezuela , Guatemala , Guayana , Suriname and Trinidad and affects humid savannas and tropical rainforests .
features
It has a slim body shape, the female reaches a body length of up to 7 centimeters, the male 5 centimeters. Both sexes are black, in the females the tarsi are pink, in the males they are reddish. The young are also black, but have a red-black fir-tree pattern on the opisthosoma , and the tarsi are yellow-orange in color. The life expectancy of the female is up to 12 years, while the male lives only a short time after the last moult.
Way of life
The common tarantula can be found in holes in tall trees where it builds living tubes and covers them with silk. It relies on its sense of touch to acquire food and sits in front of its cave at night and waits for prey. The poison bite is not dangerous for a person, but it can lead to an infection by bacteria on the chelicerae .
Subspecies
In the past two subspecies were distinguished:
- Avicularia avicularia avicularia ( Linnaeus , 1758)
- Avicularia avicularia variegata F. O. Pickard-Cambridge , 1896
Avicularia avicularia variegata is now listed under Avicularia variegata F. O. Pickard-Cambridge , 1896 as an independent species.
Web links
Avicularia avicularia in the World Spider Catalog
- Common tarantula. In: tierdoku.com. April 8, 2011, accessed January 15, 2016 .
literature
- P. Klaas: Vogelspinnen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8001-3696-1
- G. Schmidt : The tarantulas. Verlag KG Wolf, 2003, ISBN 9783894328993
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Natural History Museum of the Burgergemeinde Bern: World Spider Catalog Version 18.0 - Avicularia . Retrieved March 14, 2017.
- ↑ Fukushima, CS & Bertani, R. (2017): Taxonomic revision and cladistic analysis of Avicularia Lamarck, 1818 (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Aviculariinae) with description of three new aviculariine genera. ZooKeys, 659, pp. 1-185.