Habitat of Pet Chaco Tarantula

Video Transcript

"Tarantulas are arachnids. What makes this an arachnids is it has 8 legs; 4 legs on each side of its body. Also, arachnids have 2 body parts. The top right here is called the cephlathorax. The bottom part right here is the abdomen. Now, tarantulas are found throughout the tropics. There are new world tarantulas, which are found in center south America, and old world tarantulas, which are found over in Africa and Asia. If you're choosing a pet tarantula, I would recommend going for a new world tarantula. There are some species in the new world that tend to be more docile. Old world tarantulas tend to be a little bit more aggressive, and some old world tarantulas have a significant venom. Now, tarantulas are a primitive spider. What makes them a primitive spider is that their fangs are curved directly underneath their cephalothorax. If I'm very gentle I will turn her over and you can see how the fangs right there are curved and tucked underneath their body. In order for a tarantula to strike or bite, a tarantula has to raise the first half of its body off the ground. More recently evolved spiders, such as black widows and house spiders fangs are sideways so they can bite like this. Whereas the tarantulas, have to come down on something to bite. Now, other arachnids include ticks and scorpions."