South Russian tarantula: beautiful and harmless

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

South Russian tarantula, or mizgir is a poisonous large spider belonging to the family of wolf spiders. It is distributed in the south of Russia and in Central Asia. It lives in the steppe, forest-steppe and desert zones, preferring moist soils with high groundwater.

The length of his body covered with hairs can reach 35 mm. The hairs perform a tactile function. Its color depends on the habitat and can be light red, brown-red, black-brown and almost black.

The body of a spider consists of a small cephalothorax, connected by a thin constriction with a fairly large abdomen. On the cephalothorax there are several eyes, a pair of leg jaws (used to hold and kill prey) and a pair of leg tentacles (serving as an organ of touch). In addition, there is also an almost black “cap”, which distinguishes the South Russian tarantula from other representatives of the family. The photo shows it well.

This spider has 4 pairs of walking legs. On his abdomen are arachnoid warts. The fluid released from these warts instantly hardens in the air and turns into a spider web. It also has venom glands. The poison is poured into the body of the victim through the ducts intoclaws of the jaws. These spiders are dioecious, and the males are smaller than the females.

The South Russian tarantula does not weave trapping nets, it uses the web to glue the walls of its dwelling, build an egg cocoon and to overcome obstacles. It is thanks to the web that the tarantula is able to get out of the glass jar. He hunts mainly at night and not far from the mink. If during the day a random insect enters the dwelling of a spider, then he does not refuse an unexpected dinner. The South Russian tarantula spider reacts to a shadow that appears near a mink. He thinks that it is some kind of insect, and therefore jumps out in the hope of catching it. If you tie an object to a thread and create a semblance of movement near a mink, then in this way the South Russian tarantula can be lured out of its home.

Spiders mate in August. Males do not survive the winter after this procedure, they die. The copulating females and young animals remain for the winter, which climb into the deep burrows dug by them and seal the entrance to them with earth. At the beginning of the next summer, the female lays eggs, braiding them with cobwebs. She carries the resulting cocoon on herself, supporting with her hind limbs.

Spiderlings that emerge from eggs hold on to their mother's abdomen for some time. The female goes to the water to get drunk and water the young. Having drunk, the spider moves through open areas and dumps spiders in different places, settling them in this way. Juveniles first look for shelters, and later they begin to dig minks.

The South Russian tarantula rarely bites people, only for the purpose of self-defense. It happens that a spider that has got into a tent (dwelling) crawls over a sleeping person. A person, feeling tickling, languidly tries to remove from himself the source that disturbs sleep. The spider can consider this movement as a threat and bite a sleeping person. Therefore, being in nature, before going to bed, you need to shake out all things and tightly close the entrance to the tent.

Mizgir's bite is quite painful, but not fatal. Causes swelling and redness. The bite site should be burned with a match as soon as possible, because the high temperature contributes to the decay of the injected poison. This method is applicable for all poisonous spider bites.