1. Breeding tarantulas by Miroslav Horký

2. Basic informations The tarantulas are the oldest spiders on world. They live on all continets except Antarctica. The tarantulas aren‘t only very big spiders. They‘re large from 13mm to 13cm in body. One of the smallest breeded tarantula is Cyriocosmus elegans with 15mm. On the otherside Theraphosa blondii with 13cm in body or 25-30cm in legs is the biggest spider on world.

3. Taxonomy order Kingdom – Animalia Subkingdom – Metazoa Phylum – Arthropoda Subphylum – Chelicerata Class – Arachnida Order – Aranea Suborder – Mygalomorphae Family - Theraphosidae

4. Toxicity All spiders on the world are poisonous because they must hunt. The toxicity is very different by species. In suborder Mygalomorphae (all tarantulas) are many death poisonous species but in family Theraphosidae (breeded tarantulas) aren‘t anyone species which can kill adult healthy man.

5. Terrarium We distinguish three types of tarantulas: 1) Underground tarantulas which live at holes in ground. 2) Ground tarantulas which live on the ground 3) Tree tarantulas which live on trees According to this resolution we have three types of terrarium for breeding.

6. 1) Terrarium for tree tarantulas must be high about 40-50cm and there must be branch or crust in interior. 2) Terrarium for ground tarantulas is lower than for tree tarantulas (about 20-30cm) and we use halfpipe crust like hiding place. 3) Terrarium for underground spiders is same high as terrarium for tree spiders, but there is high layer of substrate.

7. Terrarium for tree and ground tarantulas

8. Feeding Tarantulas as like as the other spiders hunt live prey. So we must feed tarantulas with crickets, locusts, maggots or young mouses. This feed is normally offered in petshops so the feeding isn‘t big problem.

9. Gallery In the next slides there are photos of some my tarantulas

10. Brachypelma smithi Subfamily - Theraphosinae Discoverer - Cambridge (1897) Occurrence - Mexico

11. Grammostola actaeon Subfamily – Theraphosinae Discoverer – Pocock (1903) Occurrence – Brazil, Uruguay

12. Theraphosa blondii Subfamily – Theraphosinae Discoverer – Latreille (1804) Occurrence – Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana

13. Theraphosa apophysis Subfamily – Theraphosinae Discoverer – Tinter (1991) Occurrence - Venezuela

14. Cyclosternum fasciatum Subfamily – Theraphosinae Discoverer – Cambridge (1892) Occurrence – Costa Rica

15. Lasiodora parahybana Subfamily – Theraphosinae Discoverer – Mello- Leitao (1917) Occurrence - Brazil

16. Chaetopelma gracile Subfamily – Ischnocolinae Discoverer – Ausserer (1871) Occurrence - Cyprus

17. Avicularia avicularia avicularia Subfamily – Aviculariinae Discoverer – Linnaeus (1758) Occurrence – Guyana (only for subspecies A. a. avicularia)

18. Poecilotheria fasciata Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae Discoverer – Latreille (1804) Occurrence – Sri Lanka

19. Poecilotheria ornata Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae Discoverer – Pocock (1899) Occurrence – Sri Lanka

20. Poecilotheria rufilata Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae Discoverer – Pocock (1899) Occurrence - India

21. Poecilotheria subfusca Subfamily – Poecilotheriinae Discoverer – Pocock (1895) Occurrence – Sri Lanka

22. Literature František Kovařík – Chov sklípkanů (Madagaskar, 2001) Volker von Wirth – Sklípkani Jak na to (Vašut, 1998) Antonín Kůrka, František Kovařík – České názvy živočichů VI. – Pavouci a štíři (Národní muzeum, 2003) http://www.arachnomania.cz http://www.salix.cz

23. Warning: All photos are used with permission of their authors. Another using and distributing photos is illegal!! Made by Miroslav Horký in April 2006