Animals

This is a dark spider overall with a black burst covered by brown hairs. Its legs have orange to dark red-orange “knees” and some smaller patches of orange on the legs. Carapace is usually a creamy beige with a distinctive black square. Can grow to 5 and 1/2 inches in size. A tarantula has two major body sections: the cephalothorax and the abdomen. Appendages on the cephalothorax include four pairs of legs, a pair of pedipalps and a pair of fang tipped chelicerae. (Chelicerae are appendages each of which is made up of a fang and a basal segment containing venom glands and teeth used to macerate prey.) Of the legs, the first two are for holding prey, and the others are used for walking. Mature males have special copulatory organs on the pedipalps and hooks on the first pair of legs. The abdomen has two pair of spinnerets posteriorly.