''Aphonopelma seemanni'', the Costa Rican zebra tarantula, also known as the striped-knee tarantula, is a species of
tarantula
Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...
inhabiting most of western
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
and other parts of
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
, such as
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
and
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...
, and possibly
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by Hon ...
. It is usually black with white stripes near the leg joints, but a brown color form also exists for the spider.
Zebra tarantulas are deep-burrowing spiders. They live in open, semiarid scrublands, and are often found in large aggregations. Their deep burrows keep the temperature below the highest daytime temperatures, and retain humidity. Conversely, as temperatures drop at night, the burrows buffer away from the lowest temperatures.
Zebra tarantulas can grow to about 10–13 cm including leg span. Females can live up to 20 years. Males, however, tend to live a much shorter life – up to five years, with about a single year of maturity. In the wild, they eat a wide variety of insects such as
grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopp ...
s and
cockroach
Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known ...
es. In captivity, they eat
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
s.
Zebra tarantulas have urticating hairs. These hairs can be thrown and are irritating to human skin. However, it is rare for them to do so. They are very skittish in nature and fast runners.
References
4. Montes de Oca, Laura; Mendoza, Jorge (2020), Pérez-Miles, Fernando (ed.), "Tarantulas in Captivity: Raising and Breeding", ''New World Tarantulas: Taxonomy, Biogeography and Evolutionary Biology of Theraphosidae'', Zoological Monographs, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 411–461, , , retrieved 2021-10-30
* Platnick, Norman I. (2008)
World Spider Catalog version 8.5. ''American Museum of Natural History''.
External links
Caring for your Costa Rican Zebra
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1519585
seemanni
Spiders of Central America
Spiders described in 1897