What makes tarantulas dangerous?

There are some spiders that are NOT tarantula which are far more poisonous. Tarantula are not quite as poisonous as the black widow spider and the funnel spider. However, spider species with lethal bites are extremely rare compared to tarantula. The black widow spider is a small spider that can be identified by a red mark. read more

Tarantulas are arachnids, which is a class of animals with eight legs and an external skeleton (also known as an exoskeleton). This is important to help distinguish spiders from other insects, which only have six legs. read more

Another dangerous type of spider that has been confused with tarantulas is the Australasian funnel-web spider. The best known of these is the Sydney funnel-web spider Atrax robustus, a spider that is aggressive, highly venomous, and (prior to the development of antivenom in the 1980s) was responsible for numerous deaths in Australia. read more