Beautiful red rump tarantulas are powerful nocturnal hunters of small creatures in the rainforests of Belize.
As chilly weather continues to plague much of the country including the DMV, we continue our adventures in the Belizean rainforests with eighteen adventurous students from the University of Maryland eager to explore the mysteries of Mayan culture and learn about fascinating creatures and plants in tropical ecosystems. In recent weeks we visited busy stingless bees pollinating bananas and fearsome assassin bugs patrolling vegetation in search of prey. This week, let’s get up close and personal with some nocturnal rulers of the epigeal realm.
While prowling around a landscape near Clarissa Falls, Belize we happened upon a golf ball sized hole in the ground. Using a time-honored trick to “fish” for tarantulas, we inserted a slender twig into the burrow. A large and beautiful red-rump tarantula emerged from her den to investigate the intrusion. Her glorious appearance provided students with an opportunity to see this magnificent rainforest predator up close. She obliged us with a short capture showing no inclination for aggression whatsoever and glammed for the cameras as we examined her impressive powerful fangs. After a brief photo shoot, we returned her to her lair. While holding a large spider seems a bit extreme, we have visited red-rump tarantulas on previous trips to the rainforest and some bold students have had the opportunity to hold these marvelous hunters.
Using a time-honored trick of tarantula wranglers, we were able to coax a gorgeous red rump tarantula from her subterranean home by teasing her with a small twig. Once she emerged from her gallery, it took a minute or so to corral her and gently pick her up. Students were interested to see her magnificent fangs and this gentle giant seemed happy to oblige. After glamming for the students and posing for pictures, we thanked the tarantula, bid her adieu, and returned her to her gallery.
Much lore and misinformation surround these fascinating predators. Tarantulas are named after Taranto, a city in southeastern Italy on the Ionian Sea. In the 15th through 17th centuries, legends told of the fearsome bite of the Italian tarantula that caused a condition known as tarantism. Tarantism was manifested by heightened excitability, restlessness, and sometimes an irresistible urge to dash about. Legend had it that the disease could only be cured by listening to lively frenetic music, called the Tarantella, or by engaging in a frenzied whirling dance that could last several days - shades of Saturday Night Fever. The culprit behind this mischief was actually a wolf spider, Lycosa tarantula, locally known as a tarantula. Wolf spiders belong to a family known as Lycosidae. True tarantulas such as the ones we encountered in Belize belong to a family of large hairy spiders know as Theraphosidae. These unusually large spiders sometimes measure almost a foot from tip to tip of their extended legs. They have remarkable longevity and can live in excess of thirty years. Their bite is memorable by virtue of some very large fangs hidden beneath the head of the spider. Fortunately, the bite of the red rump tarantula is not very venomous and usually results in a bit of localized swelling, pain, and itching rather than a wretched death.
This beautiful tarantula seemed as curious about humans as humans were about it.
Tarantulas have one of the most interesting mating rituals of any animal in the rainforest. The male tarantula is much smaller than his mate and to successfully sire a brood of young, he places his life at risk in the presence of a potentially hungry female. To complete his task, the male tarantula constructs a thin web on which he deposits sperm. Small leg-like appendages called pedipalps located near his jaws are used to pick up the sperm and carry it about. When he encounters a potential mate, he busts his best move which may include drumming, waggling of legs, and other gambols. This dance helps his mate recognize her suitor as a member of the same species. We all know how disagreeable it is to misidentify members of another species when we are searching for a mate. With the preliminary introductions out of the way, the male warily approaches the female and does his best not to get eaten. The male tarantula is equipped with special claws on his front legs that help him grasp the female while he uses his pedipalps to carefully place sperm into a pouch on her underside. Sometimes the male escapes this romantic encounter, but sometimes he does not and becomes dinner instead.
On the steps of El Castello at the Mayan ruin of Xunantunich, students discover Mayan history and culture in a tropical rainforest where amazing insects and spiders abound.
The female tarantula lays several hundred eggs in a silken ball. These eggs are stored in the burrow and tended until they hatch. These large juicy arthropods would seem like a tempting meal for other predators in the jungle. However, in addition to sharp fangs, the tarantula has another potent defense. The abdomen of our tarantula was covered with a dense coat of hairs known as urticating hairs. When the human encounter became just a little too unsettling, the spider raised its abdomen and expelled hairs by rubbing them off with the hind legs. These irritating hairs can lodge in the eyes or nasal passages of a would-be predator and thereby thwart an attack. On several visits to the Belizean rainforest, we have encountered tarantulas, enjoyed their company, and returned them to their galleries. However, due to habitat destruction and collecting for the pet- trade industry, tarantulas in the genus Tliltocatl are threatened and are now protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora laws. These regulations prohibit the international trade of more than 34,000 species of wild animals and plants to prevent their extinction.
Reference
We thank Drs. Dan Gruner and Paula Shrewsbury and the hearty crew of BSCI 339M: Tropical Biology and Maya Culture for providing the inspiration for this episode of Bug of the Week. Special thanks to Mary Lanahan, Rayleigh Graves, and Paula Shrewsbury for providing images and videos used in this episode. Much of the information for this Bug of the Week came from Jerry G. Well's delightful book "The Guide to Owning a Tarantula".