Phormictopus cancerides

Hispaniolan giant tarantula
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Chelicerata
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Infraorder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Theraphosidae
Genus:	Phormictopus
Species:	P. cancerides
Binomial name
Phormictopus cancerides (Latreille, 1806)
Synonyms
Mygale cancerides Mygale erichsonii Eurypelma cancerides Schizopelma erichsoni

Phormictopus cancerides, known as the Hispaniolan giant tarantula, is a tarantula native to the Dominican Republic, where it is called cacata; Haiti, where it is called araignée-crab; and Cuba, where it is rare. It occurs from the West Indies to Brazil. During the day they hide under rocks and debris and come out at night to look for prey. Their fangs are quite formidable at more than 2 centimeters long, and when they pierce the body of its prey, venom is injected which paralyzes and breaks down the internal body tissue, allowing the tarantula to suck up the liquified insides. Its bite is rarely harmful to humans but can cause irritation and swelling.

As prey

Their most dangerous predator is the pepsis wasp, commonly called the tarantula hawk. Locally it is known as a matacacata (the tarantula-killer). This is a very large parasitoid wasp, with an iridescent blue-green body and orange-red wings that grows to about 2 inches or more in length. It captures the spider in its burrow or sometimes in the open and stings it to paralyze it and then lays its eggs on the abdomen. The wasp will drag its victim to a safe place to incubate its young. Once the larvae hatch they will feed on the alive but paralyzed tarantula until it dies.

References

• Kovařík, František (2001): Chov sklípkanů (Keeping tarantulas), Jihlava. ISBN 80-86068-29-3
• Platnick, Norman I. (2008): The world spider catalog, version 8.5. American Museum of Natural History.