Tarantulas: Where They Live

Summary: Tarantuals live all over the world! Join Kiersten as she talks about where tarantulas live, what habitats they like, and how they got all over the planet.

 

For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.

 

Show Notes: 

The Tarantula Scientist by Sy Montgomery

“Tarantulas are everywhere and now researchers know why” by Mihai Andrei, ZME Science https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/tarantula-evolution-gondwana-19042021/

https://www.heath-hands.org.uk/blog/subterranean-spiders

https://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/arachnids/spiders/theraphosidae/index.htm

https://environment.des.qld.gov.au/wildlife/animals/living-with/tarantulas

https://usaspiders.com/aphonopelma-hentzi-texas-brown-tarantula/

“The Natural History of Tarantula Spiders” by Richard C. Gallon https://www.thebts.co.uk/old_articles/natural.htm

 

Transcript

(Piano music plays)

Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

 

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Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

 

This episode continues tarantulas and the third thing I like about these amazing arachnids is where they live!

 

Tarantulas are found on every continent on the planet with the exception of Antartica. For those arachnaphobs out there this is distressing news, but do not worry they have specific habitats that they prefer and once you know what these are you can successfully avoid them. Although, by the end of this series of Ten Things I Like About, I know all my listeners will be in love with tarantulas! Okay, okay, if not love then at least in appreciation.

 

Tarantulas are most commonly found in warmer climates. Semi-arid desert habitat is the environment that most people associate with tarantulas, but more tarantulas are actually found in tropical rainforests than desert areas. Most tarantulas are distributed on land found 40 degrees north of the equator to 40 degrees south of the equator. This places them in warmer regions of the planet which includes Africa, southern Europe, areas of the Middle East, southern Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and all of Central and South America.

 

Tarantulas found in North America are typically restricted to the Southwest, including Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma; although, the Texas Brown has been seen as far east as Missouri. A common area home to several species of tarantula in North America is the desert. Various species of tarantula are found in semi-desert areas of the Sonoran, Chihuahua, and Mojave deserts. 

 

There are seven species of tarantula described in Australia. They are found in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia. The habitat they favor consists of desert, temperate, and rainforest areas. They are not found in the southern coastal areas or the northern tropics. 

 

South America is a hotspot for tarantulas. These hairy arachnids are found almost everywhere on this continent. The warm, humid tropical forests are a great place to find tarantulas. Just north of the equator sits French Guiana, it’s about the size of Indiana in the United States and is considered by many scientists to be the tarantula capital of the world. About a dozen different species of tarantula live there including the world famous bird-eating tarantulas!

 

In Africa, tarantulas are found almost everywhere with the exception of the Sahara desert. This desert is home to only a handful of creatures that can tolerate the super dry environment and the extreme temperatures. No tarantula has yet to be found that is equipped to survive there. But Africa is host to many species of temperate as well as tropical species of tarantula, one of the most famous being the baboon spiders.

 

In Europe, one must be very careful when looking for tarantulas. You must be sure to not get them mixed up with hairy wolf spiders! The original “tarantula” was a very hairy wolf spider seen in Taranto, Italy. The name was carried to other continents by European explorers who used it to describe other hairy spiders they saw. We ended up keeping and using the word “tarantula” for arachnids in the Family Theraphosidae. There is only one known species of tarantula in the United Kingdom classified in Family Therphosidae and that is the purse web spider.

 

You might be thinking, how did tarantulas find their way to almost every continent in the world? Well some scientists from Carnegie Mellon University had the same question. Behaviorally speaking, tarantulas are typically homebodies, so how did they spread across the planet? Turns out tarantulas are pretty old. Like Cretaceous period running around with dinosaurs old. Because they lived during this time they inhabited Gondwana, the supercontinent that existed before tectonic activity created continental drift resulting in the seven continents we have today. Tarantulas just hitched a ride. 

 

There is also some evidence that tarantulas may be better dispersers than we initially thought, at least on the Asian continent. It appears that two lineages colonized across the Asian continent. Some stayed in India while others diversified across Asia while the Indian tectonic plate was still drifting toward Asia. These two lineages actually colonized Asia 20 million years apart. This information is encouraging scientists to reevaluate how they think about tarantula dispersal. 

 

Now that we know where in the world to find tarantulas, let’s take a closer look at where they spend most of their time. There are two main places that tarantulas live. The first is the most common and what most people think of when you think about tarantulas, underground burrows.

 

The vast majority of tarantulas live in underground burrows. These burrows are often self made by the tarantula, but occasionally another animal’s abandoned burrow will be used. To dig the burrow, tarantulas will use their chelicerae and pedipalps to move the soil. If they are digging their own burrow and they are a sedentary species that lives in one place for many years, they will expand the tunnels and chamber as they themselves grow! Could you imagine having to build a larger house or apartment each time we humans got bigger?

 

Most burrows consist of one long tunnel leading to an ovoid chamber that the tarantula uses to rest in. Often both the tunnel and chamber floors will be covered in a layer of silk that the tarantula produces itself. Some species of tarantulas have a more elaborate set up with more than one chamber and additional entrance tubes. This does give you an escape route if confronted by another tarantula or a predator. Smart thinking!

 

Some species will spruce up the entrance to their burrow with a structure called a turret. The turret consists of plant material and soil stitched together with silk. It sits outside the lip of the burrow and prevents ground water from flooding the burrow! What a great example of forethought…in an arachnid! Amazing! 

 

The second place tarantulas live is in trees! Yes, that’s right I said trees. There are a handful of arboreal tarantula species. They are found in South America, Africa, and Asia, mainly in tropical forests. Arboreal tarantulas have many different choices when it comes to finding a secure living space in a tree. Some will construct a tube made of silk that it attaches to surrounding branches. Rotted holes in trees can make a lovely abode for a tarantula to inhabit. Some will rest behind loose panels of bark. And other’s use epiphytic plants that grow in the branches of trees. Talk about a fancy high rise home. These tarantulas know where it’s at!

 

There is a third life style that is still being studied, but it appears that some tarantulas may live a vagabond life. They wander from burrow to burrow or hiding spot taking refuge in whatever place they can find during the day. So far, it looks like only two species may lead this type of life, but more research is needed to confirm this behavior.

 

That’s it for this third fascinating episode about tarantulas. I hope you liked learning about where tarantulas live as much as I liked writing about it, because it is my third favorite thing about tarantulas.  

 

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 

 

Join me next week for another thing I like about tarantulas!

 

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This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.