Tarantula Time in Southwestern Colorado
It’s that time of year again, when the male Grand Canyon Black Tarantulas roam the desert floor, searching for love and affection. The newspapers like to refer to this annual mate-search as a “Tarantula Migration”. That term has a nice…
My faithful Spider Hound pointing a Male Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_). Jack approached the Tarantula with more circumspection than is his usual wont, likely having had prior experiences with the urticating hairs of Tarantulas.
It’s that time of year again, when the male Grand Canyon Black Tarantulas roam the desert floor, searching for love and affection.
The newspapers like to refer to this annual mate-search as a “Tarantula Migration”. That term has a nice ring to it, but the males are not really migrating. They live here - it’s just that we can see them now.
Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_).
It’s one of my favorite times of the year, something I look forward to. This year (2022), I started seeing them in late September. I’d come across one of them on every other hike.
They seem very purposeful as they stride along, stopping every now and then to investigate any holes they find that might belong to a female spider.
Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_) explores what he hopes is a female’s spider hole
Nope, no female this time. The Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_) leaves the hole that he explored in the previous photo.
Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_).
Male Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_) walking across dead Juniper branches
Grand Canyon Black Tarantula (_Aphonopelma marxi_) striding purposefully across the desert floor.
Today’s hike - Snow!
On today’s hike it was cooooold, windy, and snowy. This cold weather will likely cramp the Spider-Dating for at least a while.
I’m hoping that the Tarantulas were able to find happiness before this weather moved in.
Update 2022-10-31: It’s Halloween, four days later The snow has melted and it’s warmer than it was, but the nights are well below freezing. And what should I see today but a male Tarantula, out roaming.
Very nice to see.
Sources:
Hamilton CA, Hendrixson BE, Bond JE (2016) Taxonomic revision of the tarantula genus Aphonopelma Pocock, 1901 (Araneae, Mygalomorphae, Theraphosidae) within the United States. ZooKeys 560: 1-340. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.560.6264.
Note that this male “migration” is a well-known event here in the Four Corners area. Here’s a 2019 article from our local paper, the Cortez Journal.