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Arachnophilia Image Gallery

Historical images: the work of Dr. William J. Baerg


This was one of Dr. Baerg's study sites in Fayetteville. At this site, Dr. Baerg followed the lives of individual tarantulas for years.		  
A tarantula burrow is located just under this rock. Note the silk around the entrance of the burrow. This is a reliable hint that a tarantula is at home here.		  

Dr. William J. Baerg was a pioneer in tarantula research and did much of his work around his Fayetteville home. This image of a female tarantula with her eggsac was taken by Dr. Baerg.		  
This image taken by Dr. Baerg depicts the early stages of tarantula courtship.		  

At this stage of the process, the male must immobilize the female's fangs for his safety. Here, he has hooked the females fangs with his front legs and is pushing her backwards.		  
Once the fangs have been immobilized, the male then inserts sperm into an opening on the female's abdomen.		  

A mated female lays down a bed of silk to begin depositing her eggs.		  
A tarantula eggsac is about the size of a golf ball and contains around 400-800 eggs. The eggs in this sac have hatched and the spiderlings are emerging.		  

21st Century Tarantulas


This eggsac was found under a rock at the Fayetteville site. The eggs have hatched and spiderlings are everywhere. The mother of the spiderlings is in the burrow just to the left of the eggsac.		  
The pen provides some scale to this image. A tarantula eggsac is something akin to a soft, leathery golf ball.		  

Tarantula spiderlings are quite small and generally will stay near their mother's burrow for about a week. After that, they disperse to find homes of their own.		  
There were at least 300 tarantula spiderlings under this one rock. Most of these will not survive to adulthood due to predation and other factors.		  

This female tarantula with eggsac was discovered and photographed by Kory Roberts in the Ouachita National Forest.		  
Female tarantulas guard their developing young tenaciously, staying in constant physical contact with their eggsacs.		  

This magnificent adult male was also found by Kory Roberts in the Ouachita National Forest.		  
This tarantula was found in May 2004 by Ray and Amy Blaylock in a neighbor's driveway. They photographed the tarantula and moved it off to a safer location.		  

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