Arachnophobes beware! If a giant hairy spider the size of a dinner plate sounds like the stuff of nightmares, you’d best avoid coming face to face with the Goliath tarantula (Theraphosa blondi).
Known commonly as the Goliath tarantula, or Goliath birdeater spider, this is the world’s biggest spider, judged by body mass and body length. Covered in reddish golden hair, it can have a body of up to 13cm in length, a weight of up to 175g, and a leg span of up to 30cm - that’s the side of a large dinner plate, for context.
Females have a lifespan of around 20 years, while males have a lifespan of between three and six years, dying shortly after maturing. Unlike many other spider species, the female does not kill the male during mating.
Where does the Goliath tarantula live?
The geographical distribution of the Goliath tarantula is the northern regions of South America in the Amazon rainforest, specifically Guyana, French Guiana, northern Brazil, eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela and Suriname.
Its preferred habitat is forests, with a preference for marsh or swamp areas, where it creates a burrow in the ground or under rocks and lines it with silk. This is where it stays during the day, emerging at night to feed.
- Why are people scared of spiders?
- This metallic blue tarantula is the most beautiful spider in the world
Does the Goliath tarantula really eat birds?
A big arachnid like the Goliath spider needs a fair amount of food to keep it going, and its diet for the most part is made up of worms, other large insects and arthropods, and amphibians. It’s also been known to eat animals such as rodents, lizards and snakes.
And yes, the Goliath tarantula has been known to eat birds if the opportunity presents itself, but this is rare. It’s big enough to, but generally doesn’t.
In fact, the name ‘birdeater’ actually refers to the whole Theraphosa genus that this spider belongs to, and came as a result of an 18th-century engraving that depicted a different member of the tarantula family eating a hummingbird.
How does it hunt and kill?
The Goliath tarantula is nocturnal. By day, it stays in a burrow lined with silk. At night, it comes out to hunt in the leaf litter of its forest habitats.
Rather than relying on their relatively poor eyesight to identify prey, these tarantula instead sense vibrations with their hairy legs and bodies, and are opportunistic hunters. It will pounce then sink its fangs into its various prey, injecting them with neurotoxins that incapacitate them.
Rather than consume its prey then and there, a much more gruesome fate awaits any insect, rodent or amphibian that has the misfortune to cross the Goliath birdeater tarantula’s path. Spiders can’t bite and chew, so instead the prey is dragged back to the burrow. The injected toxins gradually begin to digest the prey to liquid form, which the Goliath tarantula will drink, until the unfortunate organism is drained dry.
Is the Goliath tarantula dangerous for humans?
The Goliath tarantula has some pretty impressive fangs. Sharp, and two to four centimeters long, they are long and powerful enough to break human skin, and do contain venom. However, T. blondi generally only bite humans defensively, and the venom is not particularly toxic and has been compared to bee and wasp stings.
The bigger risk to humans comes not from the fangs but from that hairy abdomen. If the Goliath tarantula feels threatened, it will, like other tarantula species in North and South America, face the threat and release a cloud of hairs from its body by rubbing its abdomen with its hind legs. Known as urticating hairs (after the latin for nettle), they are barbed and a severe irritant to skin and mucous membranes, and in humans can cause a itching, burning rash that can last for days.
Protective mothers
The female Goliath taratula also puts these hairs to particular use when it comes to reproduction.
She will usually lay 50 to 100 eggs, and keep them protected in a sac spun from her silk. She adds further protection by layering her urticating hairs over the egg sac, which would give any prospective egg predator a painful mouthful.
Young spiders, or spiderlings, take two to three years to mature, and in that time tend to stay close to their mother.
A spidery snack
Feeling peckish? Goliath tarantulas are edible, and are eaten after the stinging urticating hairs have been singed off. Apparently, they taste like crab or smoked shrimp.
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