Headline: Tarantulas in Colorado Travel on a Deadly Quest for

Love; Local Festival Celebrates the Arachnid’s Mating Season

Summary/Meta Description: Tarantulas in southeastern Colorado are migrating in search of a
partner as they currently spend their mating season. Learn more about it in this article.

Keywords: tarantula, Colorado, arachnid, mating season, Oklahoma brown tarantula

Content:
Tarantulas are on the move in the plains of southeastern Colorado in search of a mating partner.

In Search for Love

Fall is tarantula mating season in the plains of southeastern Colorado. Each September and
October, male Oklahoma brown tarantulas (Aphonopelma hentzi)begin their search for love
when the nights turn chilly. They can travel from 20 to 100 meters each evening looking for a
partner.

During this season, dozens of male spiders can be seen wandering along the sides of the road.
Once they find a potential partner, they perform a strange courtship ritual where they use their
legs to tap out a rhythm to get the attention of the female and encourage it to get out of her
burrow.

If the male tarantula is quick enough, it can get away and run to try and find another potential
mate. They need to skedaddle because the female might want to eat them instead. It is one of the
threats faced by the roaming spiders in addition to their natural predators.

Technically, this event is not considered as migration since there is no persistent movement or a
significant relocation to a new habitat. Instead, experts call this a “mategration”. Generally, male
tarantulas take between 7 and 10 years and females 10 to 12 years before reaching reproductive
maturity. By then, they have grown to roughly 5 inches in diameter, with males growing
pedipalps or a pair of appendages attached to their head.

READ ALSO: Thousands of Male Tarantuals Will Be Migrating Across Roads to Find
Mates

A Season to Celebrate
In the municipality of La Junta, local residents celebrate the spiders’ mating season with an
annual tarantula festival. Hundreds of people from all over Colorado and nearby states gather at
La Junta for the second annual tarantula celebration.

Visitors also head to the spiders’ neck of the grassland to watch its journey in search of a mating
partner. The males can be seen roaming across the Comanche National Grassland which
measures more than 443,000 acres.
In this festival, tourists can also witness homemade tarantula parade floats and costumes while
children get their faces and arms painted with colored spiders and bugs. There are also booths
where they can pick up some spidery swag and those that sell artificial tarantula souvenirs. The
event also features games such as human hairy legs contest, eight-legged race, and other fun-
filled and educational activities.

There are numerous species of tarantulas, but the Oklahoma Brown Tarantula is the most
abundant species in the U.S. with a range from New Mexico to Louisiana. La Junta also aims to
get the title “Tarantula Capital of the World”, and the annual festival serves as a way to promote
local tourism and awareness about tarantulas.

Tarantula fans believe that spiders do not deserve the reputation they get from horror movies.
Despite their fierce looks, tarantulas are mostly docile in nature. Their bites are painful, but the
venom is usually harmless to humans.

According to tarantula researcher Dallas Haselhuhn from Eastern Michigan University’s

Shillington Laboratory, spiders are still not that well studied. Until there is more research,
scientists will not know how the spiders might get affected by climate change or land
development.

RELATED ARTICLE: Tarantula Spiders Don't Need Any Measuring Scales To Calculate
Distance, They Have Lateral Eyes

Check out more news and information on Tarantula in Science Times.

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