Daily Zoo Animal: #5, Costa Rican Zebra Tarantula

[urbpan]

Costa Rican Zebra Tarantula Aphonopelma seemani

This strikingly beautiful arachnid lives in burrows in the Central American rainforest (or perhaps humid grasslands--there was some confusion about this in online sources). It's a quick hunter, known among tarantula hobbyists as "skittish" and possessing "a liberal dose of Houdini genes." Males have a bluish cast to the hairs on their legs, and are reputed to be very aggressive, sometimes biting their owners. Scientific information on this species was hard to come by although I did find a journal abstract which promised to explain that this animal's venom "induces necrosis of skeletal muscle in mice."

This individual (a female, I believe) lives in the Bird's World exhibit.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Banana slug, one of my all-time most popular posts (60 comments and counting).