giant Panamanian tarantula

Here's another photo to give another size reference.



This thing was huge, and very defensive. I would like to have posed it in a more aesthetically pleasing way, but it was extraordinarily uncooperative.
I was worried I had lost my dollar! Every time I reached for it the spider would lunge at my hand and not back down!

Probably a male Sericopelma, from what I can see it doesn't appear to have tibial spurs.

Later, Tom

I agree, saw a similar one once not too far away from Gualaca, just beyond the border, around Golfito in Costa Rica. It looked as if it were 11 or 12 inches, but we all know only T Blondi and its cousins reach that size. It was probably 6.5 to 7 inches, 8 tops, probably the upper limit for Central American T's. Some Xenesthis apparently can be spotted in the Darien region of Panama, which may take the cake for the largest.

Perhaps it thought you were paying it to be a model?

Beautiful boy! I'd love to run across a T in the wild, but no such luck where I live currently.

Lovely photos.