Moda arthropoda

Trilobites became extinct on our planet about 250 million years ago at the time of the Permian mass extinction. This was the greatest mass extinction recorded with something like 90% of all species being wiped out. It made the Dinosaur (KT) extinction look tame.

These were marine creatures and so it is unlikely that on our planet they would have ever scuttled about around the feet of humans. But I guess it could have been!

In any case, I chose to bring these marvellous creatures back from extinction in The Collector of Tales. It is after all a different world and Se Molde, the world of my stories, is not quite the Same Old same old that is our much abused planet Earth.

Tiny pygidium from trilobite at Wren's Nest , Dudley

For my own part I have sought out fossils of these beasts in Haverfordwest unsuccessfully, Wrens Nest in Dudley with variable success and along the banks of streams along the borders on Wenlock Edge with a certain amount of dampness. But for my arthropod fix I have had to resort to spiders and by spiders in this case I mean tarantulas.

Pygidium from trilobite at Wenlock Edge

You can see why they didn’t appear in The Collector of Tales. After all, spiders get a very bad press. Tolkien places them in the darkest foulest places of his Middle Earth to name but one.

Yet they don’t deserve this treatment. Yes tarantulas have ‘hairs’ and eight legs , they are large and they scuttle around occasionally. Of course they’re venomous but for the most part true tarantulas are not lethal unless you have an llergic reaction to their bite. Admittedly you don’t want to get bitten by them because they can hurt and make your tissues swell up. In fact from my experience they seem pretty tolerant creatures all in all if left alone and not handled excessively (or even at all)

Actually I don’t think the issue is tolerance. I suspect it is economy. Looking at it from a tarantulas point of view all the energy required to deliver a bite has to come from somewhere and then has to be replaced.

Replacement is only in the form of food and that requires more energy to acquire. Then of course if venom is delivered all those proteins have to be re synthesised . More energy still and how is that going to square with the massive energy fest that is its moult. It can’t afford to screw that up because that is kind of fatal if that goes wrong.

No I suspect that tarantulas don’t normally bite people because they can’t afford the energy loss.

Unlike flicking their hairs on the other hand. If you want to check how skittish a spider is just have a look at the hairs on its abdomen. If there’s a bald patch then it’s probably a skittish one. If there’s a lot of hair then its probably more laid back (or it’s just gone through a moult).

And you have to be careful of the hairs because they are tiny and barbed , travel a long way and can get in your eyes.

Really they are the main risk because if the fire them off when your up close they are going to cause you some irritation. Then, generally, there is no need to get too close to the creatures. I had one, a large Chilean Rose that I would handle occasionally. Those occasions usually when I had had a glass or two of wine in my bloodstream. On the other hand I had a South African tarantula that after installing it in the vivarium, I caught sight of it about every six months when I assume it sallied forth from a deep burrow to find a supply of food (crickets).

All tarantula images from my own collection around 2016.