Araneidae, Trichonephila clavipes

This is a gorgeous spider widespread over

the Island, from the coasts to the mountains.

The females reach 35mm, the males only 7mm.

Females sometimes makes very big webs with

over than 1mt in diameter. On their webs

there are some parasites, other spiders

from the genus Argyrodes (fam. Theridiidae)

they are very small and feed with nephilas

without get detected on the web, because of

their extremely slow motion. One Argyrodes

it's visible in the first picture.

During copulation...

Immature Female

Male

Dipluridae, Ischnothele garcia

A beautiful specimen from the family Dipluridae.

They are difficult to find among the forest.

They are very fast and makes big funnel webs

at the base of trees or between rocks, in the dry south-west region.

Females reach 16mm and males 12mm.

Araneidae, Argiope species.

Widespread throughout the island, mostly near the coastal areas.

The web construction have a structure in the center

named Stabilimenta, the immatures makes it like a spiral,

while the adults make an X shaped and the A. trifasciata

make a vertical line.

Argiope argentata 

Female

Argiope argentata

Female

Argiope trifasciata

Female

Male

    

Theraphosidae, Cyrtopholis cursor

Theraphosidae

Subfamily: Theraphosinae

This is a burrowing tarantula, they can dig more than 30cm deep.

The size of the female is 50mm and the male 30mm.

Normally their are very aggressive and people believe

that they can kill. I have been bitten once, it was like a

bee sting and one hour later the venom effect disappear.

Male

Females

    

Tetragnathidae, Leucauge licina

This beautiful spider can be found among low bushes,

in shady areas with high humidity.

The female can reach 11 mm and the male 8.

This one have parasites.

Theraphosidae, undetermined species

Theraphosidae

Subfamily: Theraphosinae

Small brown Tarantula found in 1992 at 3000mt.

It was a mature female with a body length of 30mm.

Very docile. One of my favorite !

Theraphosidae, Phormictopus sp. undetermined.

Theraphosidae

Subfamily: Theraphosinae

I've found it in 1992 on the mountains at more than 500 mt.

It's a quite docile Tarantula.

This is a mature female with 70mm in body lenght, in the

second picture while eating an Anolis.