Sunday, June 14, 2009

Arkansas Chocolate Tarantula


   Look closely. I believe this is what a terrified tarantula looks like. He (she?) is cowering in a coffee can in my kitchen. We just traveled for an hour in my car from Coal Hill, which means the poor thing was subjected to my driving habits and my taste in music for that long.
   I know enough about spiders to know that it has eight eyes. And here, it is using four of its legs to cover up all of those eyes. It doesn't want to see what is happening!
   I had always heard about the Arkansas Chocolate Tarantula, although I had never seen one in the wild. I was at a barbeque at a friend's house today, and the volunteer grillman came over with this thing in his hands. He said he found it crawling on the sidewalk, so he scooped it up to show the kids. I asked him if he had ever been bitten by one. He said they don't usually bite you unless you squeeze them. But he's never squeezed one, so he wasn't sure if that was true.
   I may take this little guy out the woods and let it go tomorrow. But I just wanted to let you know - Arkansas really does have tarantulas!

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