Texas tan tarantula
The Texas tan tarantula is one of the biggest spiders in the USA. It is hairy and tan to dark brown. It is calm and shy, and lives in a burrow lined with silk.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
With its legs spread out, it can be 13 to 15 centimetres across, as big as a saucer.
Females can live up to 40 years, maybe even longer.
It often moves into an old mouse hole, a dead tree or a pile of wood instead of digging its own burrow.
When scared, it rears up and lifts its front legs high to look big and fierce.
The mother guards her egg sac in the burrow and turns it now and then to keep the eggs safe.
Most asked questions about Texas tan tarantula
?How long does a Texas tan tarantula live?
Females can live up to 40 years. Males usually live only about two more years after they grow up.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aphonopelma anax
- Group
- Spiders
- Family
- Theraphosidae
- Classification
- Arachnida > Araneae > Theraphosidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Aphonopelma anax (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 Chris A. Hamilton, Brent E. Hendrixson, Jason E. Bond. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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