Purple tree tarantula
Tapinauchenius plumipes
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersRainforests and jungles8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The purple tree tarantula is a big, hairy spider from South America. Like all tarantulas, it has eight strong legs covered in soft-looking hair. It was first described by scientists almost 200 years ago.
Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Northern South America, in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil
What does it eat?
Like other tarantulas, it hunts insects and other small animals.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Purple tree tarantula 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
When it was first named in 1842, it was put in a different group called Mygale.
2
In 1871 it was moved to the group it belongs to today.
3
For many years, scientists mixed it up with another spider, which finally got its own name in 2022.
you asked
Most asked questions about Purple tree tarantula
?Where does the purple tree tarantula live?
In northern South America, in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Brazil.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tapinauchenius plumipes
- Named by
- C. L. Koch, 1842
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theraphosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theraphosidae
- Lives on
- South America
Where the facts come from
- Tapinauchenius plumipes (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 ArachnoVegan. 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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