Binghamton Zoo Animals

Pink-Toed Tarantula

(Avicularia avicularia)
Order: Arachnida
Family: Theraphosidae
Genus: Avicularia
Species: avicularia

HABITAT AND RANGE: This spider is relatively widespread and can be found in Guyana, Brazil, Venezuela and Trinidad.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: The Tarantula has two body regions, the cephalothorax (prosoma) and the abdomen (opisthosoma). The appendages of the cephalothorax include four pairs of legs, a pair of pedipalps and a pair of fang-tipped chelicerae. The abdomen differs from that of the true spiders by having, on the posterior, only two pairs of spinnerets rather than three pairs, and by having ventrally two pairs of booklungs rather than one pair. The size of the female Tarantula is up to 5 inches; males measure only 3.5 inches.

ADAPTATIONS: The spider is an arboreal (tree-living) species and builds long, silken tubes in folded leaves high off the floor of the rainforest. Molting is a fundamental process of all arthropods. In order to grow larger, they shed their old exoskeleton and the new one hardens to provide protection and a place to anchor muscles internally. The new exoskeleton is larger, allowing the spider to grow internally. It also gives the spider a complete new set of undamaged sensory and protective hairs. Molting also gets rid of any parasite or fungus that might have started to grow on the outside of the spider. Tarantulas will normally stop feeding several days before they molt. The molting process takes a few hours. It begins with the spider lying on its back. Since spiders do not die on their backs, this position only indicates molting. Do not touch the tarantula until the day after the molt to make sure the exoskeleton has hardened enough to protect it.

DIET: In the wild, the Tarantulas will eat tree frogs, insects and the occasional roosting bird. Tarantulas will normally eat any prey in the right size range. They may specialize on certain prey, such as millipedes or desert beetles.

REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Tarantulas may reach sexual maturity in as few as two years (fast-growing arboreal species in the tropics), or in as many as nine years (burrowing species). Males do not molt after reaching maturity. Soon after the males do reach maturity, they begin wandering in search of females. Before copulation, a male takes up his palps sperm that he has deposited on a specially-spun sperm web. During copulation, he inserts the sperm into the female’s genitalia. Males do not live for more than a couple months after mating. Females live much longer. They will often reach beyond 25 years in the appropriate environment.

STATUS IN WILD: They are stable in the wild.