Mexican fireleg tarantula
The Mexican fireleg tarantula is a big, hairy spider with fiery red knees, orange legs and black upper legs. It lives in burrows in dry scrubland on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It is calm, but a bit nervous.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
With its legs spread out, a grown-up is about 13 to 15 centimetres across.
It grows slowly. Females take nine or ten years to grow up and can then live about ten more years.
It often moves into old rodent or lizard burrows under rocks or logs.
It is mostly active after dark, but sometimes comes out in the morning or evening.
Too many were taken from the wild as pets, so now there are rules to protect it.
Most asked questions about Mexican fireleg tarantula
?How long does a Mexican fireleg tarantula live?
Females can live about 20 years. Males live only about a year after they are grown up.
?Where does the Mexican fireleg tarantula live?
In dry scrubland in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific coast of Mexico.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Brachypelma boehmei
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theraphosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theraphosidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Mexican rustleg tarantula, Mexican fireleg
Where the facts come from
- Brachypelma boehmei (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 Viki. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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