Amber baboon spider
Harpactira cafreriana
The amber baboon spider is a hairy tarantula from South Africa. The males shine almost golden, while the females are darker with a coppery glow. It is surprisingly calm, and when it gets scared it runs away instead of fighting.
Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
South Africa, on the ground and in shallow burrows
What does it eat?
Like other tarantulas, it catches insects and other small animals.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Amber baboon spider about 1.5 km/h (0.93 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Females can live 10 to 12 years when they are well looked after, but males live only 2 to 3 years.
2
The males have black stripes on the front of the body and a pattern like a fish skeleton on the back.
3
It spins a lot of silk and is often easy to see.
4
It lives on the ground and sometimes digs a little into the soil.
you asked
Most asked questions about Amber baboon spider
?How long does an amber baboon spider live?
Females can live 10 to 12 years in good care, and males about 2 to 3 years.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Harpactira cafreriana
- Named by
- Walckenaer, 1837
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theraphosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theraphosidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Cape copper baboon, Amber baboon tarantula
Where the facts come from
- Harpactira cafreriana (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by jacquesmerwe923. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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