Pinktoe tarantula
The pinktoe tarantula is a dark, hairy spider with pink tips on its feet, as if it had painted its toenails. It lives high up in the rainforest trees and can leap from branch to branch. Babies look the other way round: pink bodies and dark feet.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its colours swap as it grows up. It takes 4 to 5 years to get its dark body and pink toes.
If it feels threatened, it may shoot its poo at the danger. That is one of its tricks for staying safe.
It uses silk as a trap and feels the threads wobble when prey walks by.
Females can live 6 to 9 years, but males only 2 to 3 years.
A big one can measure up to about 15 centimetres.
Most asked questions about Pinktoe tarantula
?Why is it called a pinktoe tarantula?
Because grown-ups have a dark body with pinkish tips on their feet.
?What does a pinktoe tarantula eat?
Mostly insects, and sometimes a small frog or lizard.
Myth buster
Myth: Pinktoe tarantulas need a very wet, steamy home in a tank.
Truth: No. In the wild they live high in the trees where the wind blows. Damp, still air can make them sick, so they need a dry floor, a water dish and fresh air.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Avicularia avicularia
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theraphosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theraphosidae
- Lives on
- South America, North America
- Also known as
- Guyana pinktoe, South American pinktoe
Where the facts come from
- Avicularia avicularia (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 Luis Alejandro Cisneros. 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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