Thekingofthespiders教案.ppt

The king of the spiders Tarantula 食鸟蛛 Cultural salon 1 world wide distribution of tarantulas There are about 850 species of tarantulas world wide, according to some authoritative scientists research. Their range includes Africa and Madagascar, parts of the Middle East, southern Europe, south Asia, the indo-pacific region, Australia, Northern New Zealand, some of the Micronesian Islands, all of Central and South America, parts of the Caribbean, and the united states north to central California and east to the Mississippi river. More than 4 dozen of all the species of tarantulas populate the U.S. range. The origin of its name The name “ tarantula” originated in 14th century in the town of Taranto, a port town in southern Italy, where people felt forced to dance the wildly erotic Tarantella if bitten by a spider. It was originally used for an unrelated species of European spider. When Europeans started traveling to areas where such large spiders were found, the name was borrowed to refer to the so-called “ theraphosides”, which, in Africa, are often called “ baboon(狒狒） spiders” and in Asia, “ earth tigers” or “ bird-eating spiders” while in Australia, “ barking spiders” or “ whistling spiders”. Moulting(蜕壳） and life cycle Tarantulas, like other spiders, need to shed their exoskeleton periodically in order to grow. This process is called moulting. A young tarantula may go through this process a few times a year while full grown specimens will only moult once a year or even less, or sooner so they can replace lost body parts such as limbs ro urticating hairs（螯毛）. Tarantula may live for years, with most species taking 2-5 years to reach adulthood. But some species may take longer time to reach fully maturity. Some may take up to 10 years, at the point of which, males typically have but 1 to 1.5 year period left to live. Female will continue to moult after reaching maturity. They may live for several decades. The oldest spider, according to Guinness world records, lived to