Mexican Red-knee Tarantula

Brachypelma hamorii (formerly classified as B. smithi) — the Mexican red-knee tarantula — is one of the most iconic and most-studied tarantula species in the world. The species is endemic to a narrow strip of Pacific-coast Mexico in the states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, and Guerrero, where she inhabits dry tropical forest at 100-1500 m elevation. Adults reach a leg span of 14-16 cm and a body length of 6-7 cm; coloration is dramatic black overall with orange-red 'knee' markings on the patella of each leg. Females live 25-30+ years; males live 5-8 years. The species is the cultural archetype of 'a tarantula' for English-speaking audiences — featured in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, the opening cave scene), Dr. No (1962, the bedroom scene), Home Alone, and countless other films and television. The species is gentle by tarantula standards: bites are rare and the venom is medically minor (described as roughly comparable to a bee sting); the more common defensive response is to brush urticating barbed hairs from the abdomen with the rear legs, producing a painful itch on contact with the assailant's skin. Mexican red-knees are one of the most popular pet tarantulas worldwide, but the species is CITES Appendix II listed (since 1985) due to historic over-collection from the wild for the pet trade. Modern legal trade is exclusively in captive-bred individuals.