Tarantula

I found this immature female tarantula in my garage. My bug man must have killed it with his spray the last time he was here. I didn't want to get any barbs in me so I scooped it up with a piece of paper and brought it into the sunlight to take this picture. It was about 6 cm long.

In the face of a threat or a perceived threat, a typical American tarantula has two lines of defense. It can use its fangs to inflict a bite, or it can use its "urticating" (barbed and mildly venomous) abdominal hairs to cause soft tissue or eye irritation. Fortunately, while painful and aggravating, the tarantula's fangs or hairs appear to cause no long term damage in most cases.

When it attacks prey such as an insect or another spider, the tarantula swiftly drives its fangs into the body and delivers the venom, which liquefies the inside. The tarantula dines on the resultant "soup."

Tarantula Fun Facts:
-They have eight marginally functional eyes in two groups on the forehead
-They have a mouth and two backward-pointing fangs below the eyes
-The abdomen has silk-producing spinnerets at the tip
-Body size is to 7-10 cm long and 5-7 cm tall
-Leg span of 8-13 cm
-They are nocturnal
-Tarantulas' fangs move up and down; all other spiders' fangs move horizontally
-and finally...the name "tarantula" apparently originated in the 14th century, in the Italian city of Taranto, where people felt compelled to dance the wildly erotic Tarantella if bitten by a spider.