Flora and Fauna News

Tarantulas!

Male Spiders Wandering Highways in Search of Mates

By Michael Plagens
Sonoran Desert Sciences

PHOENIX ----- The Dog Days of Summer may seem unbearable to us human residents of the Sonoran Desert, but for male tarantulas this is a most wonderful time! It's tarantula mating season. For most of their lives taratualas are solitary creatures living secluded lives inside silk-lined earthen burrows. The spiders rarely go far from the burrow entrance to catch prey, for despite their ferocious appearance they themselves are actually quite vulnerable to a variety of predators.

Owls, skunks, ringtails and grasshopper mice are just a few of the predators that would happily dine on any tarantula they find. Only love-sick males are foolish enough to venture out against such odds. Although it's bite is mildly poisonous, the spider's most effective defense is the hair on the abdomen which can cause intense itching. The males have no choice but to face the danger because the females stay put and wait for the males to come knocking at their doors. When the males do arrive at a potential mate's burrow-door they must knock with caution and with the appropriate signal or else they might be mistaken for a potential meal.

During these last few weeks of summer the male tarantulas will go out searching almost every night for possible mates. They don't eat much and by late September they will die ... that is if their dangerous new life style hasn't resulted in an untimely death. Mated females on the other hand can live for ten years or more producing many generations of baby tarantulas.

Tarantula Spider Male observed at the eastern end of the Superstition Mountains, Pinal County, Arizona.