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| Credit : Wikimedia Commons |
The tarantula's appearance is worse than its bite. Tarantula venom is weaker than that of a honeybee and, though painful, is virtually harmless to humans.
Tarantulas periodically shed their external skeletons in a process called molting.
Tarantulas have an average life span of up to 30 years.
Tarantulas are accomplished nocturnal predators. Insects are their main prey, but they also target bigger game, including frogs, toads, and mice. The South American bird-eating spider, as it name suggests, is even able to prey upon small birds.
Generally tarantulas are burrowers that live in the ground. A tarantula does not use use a web to trap their pray. Instead they grab their pray using with their appendages and inject a paralyzing venom using their fangs.
A tarantula's venom contains digestive enzymes that dissolve their victims body so that they can suck them up through their straw-like mouth.
Parasitic pepsis wasps are known to paralyze a tarantula with its sting and lay its eggs on the spider's body. When the eggs hatch, wasp larvae gorge themselves on the still living tarantula.
Read More at the Nat Geo Website
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