Zebra tarantula

It is a burrowing and digging tarantula that does not weave much. Like all tarantula, it moults regularly to grow, changing its body entirely, the empty shell of its former body remaining next to it like a second spider. It feeds on grasshoppers, small beetles, crickets, cockroaches and occasionally baby rodents. It has stinging hairs, which it releases on its attackers when threatened. Contact with them can cause severe skin irritation.

Most tarantulas are cannibals: the female must be satiated before accepting the male, otherwise she may devour him. At birth, the babies cling to the female’s back and devour each other by natural selection, leaving only the strongest alive – around one fifth of the litter.