Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula Facts


The Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula is a huge, gorgeous tarantula that also makes a great starter pet for spider enthusiasts. While this spider may not be the largest, it does have the honor of being the longest-lived spider on the planet.

Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula
Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com/Dan Olsen

The Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula: Description.

The Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula (Grammostola athracina) is a large, mostly brown spider with reddish-orange or pinkish hairs. It can grow to have a leg span of 10 inches. Mature males 

Brazilian Giant tawny red tarantulas possess thick legs and large abdomens, and their carapace becomes more massive and defined when they reach adulthood. 

The females produce about 130-250 eggs per sac and will remain nearby when the spiderlings are hatching to assist them in exiting the sac.

The Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula: Habitat and diet.

The Brazilian giant tawny red tarantula is found in the deserts, grasslands, and scrublands of Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

It feeds on small insects, roaches, crickets, mice, small lizards, and frogs.

Is the Brazilian Giant Tawny Red Tarantula Venomous?

No, venom is not fatal or classified as dangerous to humans. 

The Brazilian giant tawny red tarantula has urticating hairs that pose a hazard to humans. When disturbed, it will turn toward a threat and briskly rub its opisthosoma to throw these hairs at it. Urticating hairs can kill smaller mammals, but the dangers lie in potential eye injury and respiratory harm in humans.

The Genera Grammostola has type IV urticating hair—the most irritating to humans.

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Dennis V. Gilmore Jr.

Dennis V. Gilmore Jr. is a former Marine Sergeant and the author of several books, including two on night hunting coyotes and red and gray fox. He has written several hundred articles on predator hunting for ThePredatorHunter.com.

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