{"id":251358,"date":"2025-10-25T20:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/251358\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T20:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T20:28:10","slug":"tarantula-mating-season-is-in-full-swing-not-everyone-comes-out-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/251358\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarantula mating season is in full swing. Not everyone comes out alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s a crisp night in the rugged mountains above Los Angeles following the first rains of fall.<\/p>\n

This is the night of the lustful tarantula \u2014 and it\u2019s filled with peril.<\/p>\n

Every year, male tarantulas strike out from their burrows in search of a lover. Finding one can be fatal, whether she\u2019s in the mood or not. Females are known to snack on their suitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the female is not receptive, you better run,\u201d said Rodrigo Monjaraz Ruedas, assistant curator of entomology for the Natural History Museum of L.A. County. \u201cEven if the female is receptive and they mate \u2014 after they mate, the male needs to be really fast and sneaky because otherwise the female can also eat the male as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In California, October is typically a prime mating month for the bulky, hirsute spiders. Natural cues are key, with autumn\u2019s initial precipitation generally triggering the march. Experts suspect males are following pheromones to hunkered-down females.<\/p>\n

While the arachnids inhabit areas such as the Angeles National Forest and Santa Monica Mountains year-round, mating season<\/a> \u2014 when the males are on the move \u2014 offers the best opportunity to spot one. It runs from about July through November, and nighttime just after a rain is an ideal time to scout for the eight-legged critters.<\/p>\n

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All is fair in love and war<\/p>\n

A tarantula love act begins with a courtship ritual. That might entail the male tapping on the ground or the female\u2019s web<\/a> and \u2014 if she\u2019s receptive \u2014 she\u2019ll respond in kind.<\/p>\n

Because of the risk involved, male tarantulas use hook-like structures on their first pair of legs to hold the female during coitus, according to Monjaraz Ruedas. Another set of appendages, called pedipalps, are used to transfer sperm.<\/p>\n

A single act can produce hundreds of baby tarantulas \u2014 adorably called spiderlings \u2014 though many don\u2019t survive in the wild. <\/p>\n

Meet your local spiders<\/p>\n

There are 10 species of tarantulas roaming the Golden State, including at least two that can be found in L.A. County.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s most common variety is the California ebony tarantula, or Aphonopelma eutylenum, which can range from light beige to their namesake color. The female\u2019s leg span can reach up to five inches. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the desert-dwelling Aphonopelma iodius, often found in the Mojave.<\/p>\n

California is home to more than 1,300 species of spiders, and about 40% of all of the nation\u2019s spiders live in the state. As Monjaraz Ruedas put it, \u201cthat\u2019s a lot of species.\u201d <\/p>\n

What about those fangs?<\/p>\n

Flip around a tarantula so it\u2019s belly up and you\u2019ll be met with sizable fangs.<\/p>\n

Like almost all spiders,<\/a> tarantulas have venom. They use it to eat. However, it doesn\u2019t pose a threat to humans, according to Monjaraz Ruedas, who likened it to the strength of bee venom.<\/p>\n

Typically, a spooked tarantula will try to run and hide, said Lisa Gonzalez, program manager of invertebrate living collections at the county Natural History Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really not very bitey animals,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I can say this with confidence because I\u2019ve been working with spiders since I was a little girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is another defense mechanism. A spider can flick off irritating hairs from the backside of its abdomen, which feel like fiberglass or minute cactus spines.<\/p>\n

A tarantula at the museum named Taco, recently brought out for educational purposes, initiated the behavior after gamely posing for the cameras for a while.<\/p>\n

In contrast, some parts of the tarantula feel almost like sable fur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re soft like kitties,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

Pitfalls of city living \"A <\/p>\n

A male tarantula crosses a gravel road late in the evening on the Southern Plains Land Trust Heartland Ranch Nature Preserve near Lamar, Colo. <\/p>\n

(Helen H. Richardson \/MediaNews Group \/ The Denver Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Urbanization poses dangers for local tarantulas during mating season, according to Monjaraz Ruedas. On their quest to find mates, males can drown in backyard pools or get flattened on busy roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in general mountains represent good habitat for them,\u201d he said, \u201cso they can survive really well in those areas.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hankering to see the real deal?<\/p>\n

Tarantulas can be spotted in the wild \u2014 or, for now, at the Natural History Museum. <\/p>\n

Through November, the museum features an open-air spider pavilion,<\/a> a ticketed exhibit that allows visitors to walk amid hundreds of spiders known as orb weavers and their intricate webs. There are also enclosed habitats with species including tarantulas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a crisp night in the rugged mountains above Los Angeles following the first rains of fall. This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[136881,2356,55391,136885,136882,9079,44916,136884,44648,80749,19079,136883,79,44215,34624,73785,201],"class_list":["post-251358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-baby-tarantula","tag-california","tag-female","tag-first-rain","tag-hirsute-spider","tag-hundred","tag-leg","tag-lisa-gonzalez","tag-male-tarantula","tag-natural-history-museum","tag-november","tag-rodrigo-monjaraz-ruedas","tag-science","tag-specie","tag-tarantula-mating-season","tag-venom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}