Old world tarantula question.

[Ilovepredators]

I hear about old wold tarantulas being in Africa, Asia, and Australia. I started thinking, are there any tarantula species native to anywhere in Europe? Or is all of Europe's climate unsuitable for tarantulas?

 

[awiec]

If you want to be technical with word etymology then yes, there are "tarantulas" in Europe as the word originally described large hairy wolf spiders. When explorers went to areas of the globe where you'd find mygalamorphs, they called them tarantulas as they are big and hairy.

 

[klawfran3]

If I remember correctly, there is a species native to Spain, and I think there is one on Sicily.

 

[viper69]

There is Chaetopelma in Turkey


Amazing what GOOGLE and 2 seconds of MY time can do for humanity.

I found this on the board

kreuz
06-19-2008, 02:45 AM
well, there are a few species living in this places. some of them are even in trade. but only here in europe i guess

Italy: Ischnocolus triangulifer
Portugal: Ischnocolus holosericus, I. valentinus
Spain: Ischnocolus andalusiacus, I. holosericus, I. valentinus
Greece: Chaetopelma gracile
Cyprus: Chaetopelma karlamani (probably the smalles t found so far)

here some pictures:
probably I. triangulifer
http://giantspiders.com/Ischnocolus.jpg

I. valentinus
http://geagallerie.free.fr/images/is_valentinus01.jpg

my favorite C. karlamani
http://www.timart.be/Npaginas/pictures/chaetopelmakarlamani.jpg

 

[Ilovepredators]

So originally the term Tarantula was given to any hairy spider, which the first to be called this were wolf spiders?

 

[awiec]

So originally the term Tarantula was given to any hairy spider, which the first to be called this were wolf spiders?

Yup they apparently would cause you to have uncontrollable fits of dance when they bit you too, its call the tarantella.

 

[cold blood]

Yup they apparently would cause you to have uncontrollable fits of dance when they bit you too, its call the tarantella.

The dance was the supposed cure, not the result. It came from N. Italy (the dance)...The name tarantula actually comes from the Taranto, Italy where the "dance" originated. They used the bites (or supposed bites) as an excuse to dance wildly, which at the time was heavily frowned upon by the church at the time....an olden days "Footloose". God I hated that movie!

The original animal deemed a "tarantula" was in fact a large species of burrowing wolf spider, like mentioned, called Lycosa tarentula, which was falsly believed to be fatally venomous.

 

[awiec]

The dance was the supposed cure, not the result. It came from N. Italy (the dance)...The name tarantula actually comes from the Taranto, Italy where the "dance" originated. They used the bites (or supposed bites) as an excuse to dance wildly, which at the time was heavily frowned upon by the church at the time....an olden days "Footloose". God I hated that movie!

The original animal deemed a "tarantula" was in fact a large species of burrowing wolf spider, like mentioned, called Lycosa tarentula, which was falsly believed to be fatally venomous.

In essence if you got bit, you had to dance or suffer fits of hysteria, so I equate it as the same thing

 

[Storm76]

Yes, Ischnocolus spp. can be found in Spain / Italy afaik.