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New World Tarantulas pp 191–236Cite as

Tarantulas and Their Habitats

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Part of the book series: Zoological Monographs ((ZM,volume 6))

Abstract

New World Theraphosidae inhabit a great variety of habitats from deserts and semi-deserts, grasslands to forests of all types. Many species thrive in man-made habitats such as soccer fields and backyards, others prefer pristine regions. High Andean species occur even above 4000 m a.s.l., others dwell in Mexican and Brazilian caves. Based on their lifestyles, they may be assigned to two main subguilds: terrestrial and vegetation dwelling. Many terrestrial species make burrows in the soil (fossorial species), others hide under various objects on the ground like stones or logs without constructing burrows. The vegetation dwellers may use different plant types, mainly trees and their epiphytes up to more than 35 m above ground (arboreal species) or are restricted to certain plants like terrestrial tank bromeliads. Many arboreal species thrive also on buildings. In some species small juveniles use different microhabitats than later instars (ontogenetic habitat shift). Local assemblages may contain several species which either use slightly different areas or heights of the habitat, differ in their basic life style or use the same patch of habitat at different times. However, habitat use by Theraphosidae at various scales and their community ecology have been largely neglected by arachnologists being focused mainly on tarantula taxonomy and systematics. Knowledge of habitat use by tarantulas, both at local assemblage level and at regional level may contribute greatly to a better understanding of the biology of these fascinating and beautiful animals as well as to their conservation.

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Acknowledgments

I thank the unknown reviewer for his helpful comments on the manuscript. The Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones (MINAET) kindly granted us the permission to conduct the field work in Costa Rica. The friendly assistance of Javier Guevara (MINAET) is greatly appreciated. I am very grateful to all staff members at the Reserva Biológica Tirimbina and Chiquita (Costa Rica) as well as to the staff of Centro de Interpretación Yaku Kawsay and Sani Lodge (Ecuador) for all their friendliness, support, and for allowing me to realize this project at their sites. Many thanks to José Angel González Ramírez (Organization for Tropical Studies, Costa Rica) for identification of some trees of Tirimbina. I thank Eddy Hijmensen, Leonela Schwerdt, and Gabriel Emilio Vargas Arana for providing some scientific articles. Many thanks to Eddy Hijmensen for providing photographs of Hemirrhagus sp., Tliltocatl hamorii, and T. vagans.

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    Witold Lapinski

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  1. Facultad de Ciencias, Sección Entomología, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Fernando Pérez-Miles

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Lapinski, W. (2020). Tarantulas and Their Habitats. In: Pérez-Miles, F. (eds) New World Tarantulas. Zoological Monographs, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48644-0_7

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