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Sticker of Mexican pink tarantula
Bug card No. 2852 of 4,939

Mexican pink tarantula

Brachypelma klaasi
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsSpidersDeserts and dry places8 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin

The Mexican pink tarantula is a big, hairy spider with a rusty pink glow. Its legs are banded orange-yellow and black. It is the rarest tarantula of its group, and it lives only in a small part of Mexico.

Fun fact: spiders are not insects. Insects have six legs, spiders have eight. Everyone calls them bugs anyway!
Lives in
Western Mexico, on mountain slopes in Jalisco and Nayarit
Length
6 to 7.5 cm (2.4 to 3 in)
Top speed
about 1.7 km/h (1.1 mph)
On foot, estimate
What does it eat?
Like other tarantulas, it hunts insects and other small animals.
For real!Photo of Mexican pink tarantula
Picture by George Chernilevsky. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Mexican pink tarantula about 7.5 cm long (3 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 2.1 seconds

How big is Mexican pink tarantula compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

With its legs stretched out, it is about 16 centimetres across, as wide as a big hand.

2

It lives on mountain slopes between 300 and 1400 metres above the sea.

3

Fewer than 1 in 1000 babies survive from egg to grown-up in the wild.

4

Because so many were caught for the pet trade, it is protected by a worldwide agreement.

5

Its body is black on top, which helps tell it apart from a very similar orange-backed cousin.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mexican pink tarantula

?How big is the Mexican pink tarantula?

Its body is 6 to 7.5 centimetres long, and with its legs it spans about 16 centimetres.

?Why is it rare?

It grows slowly, its home is being damaged, and many were taken from the wild as pets.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Brachypelma klaasi
Group
Spiders
Family
Theraphosidae
Classification
Arachnida > Araneae > Theraphosidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Brachypelma klaasi (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by George Chernilevsky. Public domain, 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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More from the same group: Spiders

Also at home here: Deserts and dry places

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