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Dean Mattson, age 15, of Salt Lake City, Utah, for his question:

Is the biggest spider a tarantula?

Yes, she is    at least the largest discovered up to this time. The tarantulas are classified in a suborder of their own and all of them are large when compared with everyday spiders. At least one of them is big enough to catch a small bird for her dinner. Many people get a creepy feeling when confronted with even an ordinary spider. So it is no wonder that various horrors have been attributed to the trantula.

A large tarantula looks somewhat like a long fingered fur gloves. Regardless of her furry coat, however, she prefers to make her home in the tropics. Some of her smaller cousins enjoy life in our southwest deserts. They rate among the biggest spiders of North America. As with all spiders, we refer to them as females because male spiders are less noticeable. What's more, few of them survive their honeymoons. The largest lady tranuntula may survive through 20 years of busy motherhood.

Our most common tarantula is Eurypelma californium. The first name, spelled with a capital letter, is her genus. The second; spelled with a small letter, is her unique species. This name suggests that her range is limited to California, but actually she is common in other southwestern desert states.

Her body is about two inches long and her spidery legs may extend to a width of five inches. Her almost black skin is covered with fuzzy hairs of rusty brown. She is a shy character who hunts at night and spends the day in her sandy burrow. Her giant cousins enjoy life among the treetops in tropical South America. The bird tarantula, probably the world's largest spider, has a body almost four inches long and her legs spread eight inches wide. One of her local cousins has a body of the same size, but her legs are stubby. Another local cousin is distinguished by a purple brown fur jacket and eight furry stockings banded with red and yellow!

The Italians believed that the bite of their local tarantula sends a person into a frenzy. They claimed that only their lively tarantella dance could save the victim. It is true that all spiders have slightly poisonous fangs. A tarantula bite may or may not be as bad as a bee sting. But the wound may be badly infected from other sources.

Our native tarantula prefers to avoid us. But when scared or mishandled, naturally she bites    and the wound should be medicated. The furry little mother lays a batch of 400 to 500 eggs    and guards her baby spiderlings with fierce devotion. The youngsters are mature at the age of five years. Barring accidents, the females of the brood can expect to enjoy a life span of lb to 17 years.

 

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