Goliath Tarantulas
Imagine a huge, hairy, vicious looking spider. It has giant fangs and hair all over its body. Surprisingly, there is nothing to worry about. You are looking at the Goliath tarantula. These spiders are not what people say. They aren’t very dangerous whatsoever. If anything, you are no concern of this tarantula if you keep your distance. The largest spider in the world, the Goliath bird-eating tarantula, has a unique lifestyle where it lives in South America fighting for survival so it can achieve its one life goal: mating.
The Goliath tarantula is a typical tarantula in the Theraphosidae family. This family has 850 species in it. That’s a lot of different species. This includes Typical and Atypical tarantulas (Trap-door spiders). The Goliath is a Typical tarantula, which is a …show more content…
The Goliath tarantula is no exception. The Goliath bird-eater tarantulas are solitary creatures except during mating season. Even then, the females don’t like to have company from what scientists can tell. What’s a little odd is until they reach full maturity, male and females look alike. Fortunately, for the males at least, when they mature, males get a darker, more blackish color than females. They also form rusty red hairs on their abdomen. During the mating season, they like to show off and be noticed. According to Common Spiders of North America, “Males are conspicuous during the mating season” (Bradley 222). During this time, they wander in the open searching for mates. While they are out, they can die from natural causes, or get killed by a female during mating. Sadly, mating is the only thing a tarantula truly accomplishes in life. In order to do so, the male “has spurs or hooks on its front legs to restrain the female” (Hillyard 69), so he does not die during breeding. Which is in fact a possibility. After mating, the female will lay 50 eggs in a cocoon and store it in her burrow until the young