Tarantula Facts for Kids | Habitat, Diet & Life Cycle

Eight legs, a hairy-looking body, and a silk-lined retreat—meet the tarantula! These fascinating spiders offer plenty to investigate, from the way they hunt to how they grow by shedding their outer covering.

In this Tarantula Animal Guide for Kids, explore arachnid anatomy, habitats, food, silk, and life cycles. Extend the learning with printable research worksheets, life cycle activities, reading comprehension resources, and matching puzzles.

🕷️ Tarantula at a Glance

Tarantulas are spiders in the family Theraphosidae. There are many species, so their scientific names, sizes, colors, and lifestyles vary.

Common Name: Tarantula
Animal Group: Arachnid
Order: Araneae
Family: Theraphosidae
Scientific Name: Varies by species
Habitats: Forests, scrublands, deserts, and other suitable environments
Diet: Carnivore
Number of Walking Legs: Eight
Young Name: Spiderling
Reproduction: Lays eggs protected in a silk egg sac
Broad Life Stages: Egg → Spiderling → Juvenile → Adult
Growth Process: Molting

Help students organize their discoveries with our Tarantula Animal Research Project and Informational Writing Worksheets.

🔍 Is a Tarantula an Insect?

No. A tarantula is an arachnid. Spiders and insects are both arthropods, but they belong to different groups.

Tarantula: Eight walking legs and two main body regions.
Insect: Six legs and three main body regions: head, thorax, and abdomen.

A tarantula also has appendages near its mouth called pedipalps. These can look like an extra pair of short legs, but they are not additional walking legs.

For a classification activity, compare a tarantula photograph with a beetle photograph. Count the legs before deciding which animal belongs to which group.

🌍 Where Do Tarantulas Live?

Tarantulas occupy different habitats depending on the species. Some live in underground burrows, while others use shelters among trees and plants.

The pink-toed tarantula is a tree-dwelling species from rainforest regions of northern South America. By contrast, many Australian tarantulas live in silk-lined burrows in the ground.

These examples introduce two useful words: arboreal means tree-dwelling, while terrestrial means living mainly on land or the ground.

Invite students to design two habitat drawings—one with a tree retreat and one with a ground burrow. Ask them to explain why a single habitat description would not fit every tarantula.

🦗 What Do Tarantulas Eat?

Tarantulas are carnivores. Many feed on insects and other small invertebrates.

Larger species may also catch small vertebrates, such as frogs or lizards. What a tarantula eats depends on its size, species, and available prey.

Despite its name, the Goliath bird-eating tarantula does not frequently eat birds. Common names can be memorable without describing an animal's everyday diet perfectly.

For a food-web activity, choose one tarantula species and investigate its prey. Encourage children to distinguish a documented food item from something they assume based only on the animal's name.

🕸️ Do Tarantulas Make Webs?

Yes, tarantulas produce silk. However, they generally do not build the familiar wheel-shaped webs used by orb-weaving spiders to catch flying insects.

Tarantulas use silk for purposes such as lining retreats, creating molting mats, and protecting eggs.

This shows that silk has more than one function. A spider can produce silk without using an orb web as its main hunting tool.

Ask students to create a “Uses of Silk” diagram. They can connect the word silk with shelter, egg protection, and molting support.

🥚 Tarantula Life Cycle

The tarantula life cycle can be introduced using four broad stages:

Egg: Young develop inside eggs protected by a silk egg sac.
Spiderling: A young spider hatches and continues its early development before becoming independent.
Juvenile: The growing tarantula feeds and molts repeatedly as it becomes larger.
Adult: A reproductively mature tarantula can produce the next generation.

Spiderling and juvenile are broad teaching terms rather than sharply separated transformations. Young tarantulas already have a spider-like body form.

There is no pupal stage. Tarantulas do not develop through the egg–larva–pupa–adult sequence seen in butterflies and beetles.

The number of eggs and the time required to mature vary greatly among species. Avoid applying one species' timetable to all tarantulas.

Explore sequencing with our Tarantula Life Cycle Poster and Cut-and-Paste Worksheets. Add vocabulary and matching practice with our Tarantula Life Cycle Flashcards and Montessori 3-Part Cards.

📏 Why Do Tarantulas Molt?

A tarantula has an external supporting covering called an exoskeleton. To grow, it must shed this covering through a process called molting, also spelled moulting.

During a molt, the spider carefully pulls free of its old exoskeleton. Tarantulas often lie on their backs while this happens.

The new covering needs time to harden afterward. A shed exoskeleton can look remarkably like a whole spider, complete with the outlines of its legs.

For a vocabulary discussion, connect exoskeleton, growth, and molt. Ask children to explain why growing larger involves more than simply stretching the old outer covering.

🔬 Parts of a Tarantula

A clear photograph or illustration can help children identify these features:

Cephalothorax: The front body region, where the walking legs attach.
Abdomen: The rear body region.
Walking Legs: Four pairs, making eight in total.
Pedipalps: Appendages near the mouth that assist with sensing and handling food.
Chelicerae: Mouth appendages that bear the fangs.
Spinnerets: Structures used to release silk.

Invite students to label a drawing and use a different color for the walking legs and pedipalps. This helps prevent the common mistake of counting every visible appendage as a leg.

🛡️ How Do Tarantulas Defend Themselves?

Defense varies among species. Some tarantulas retreat into shelter or raise the front of their bodies in a warning posture.

Many species from the Americas have irritating defensive hairs called urticating hairs. These can help deter predators, but they are not present in every tarantula species.

Tarantulas also possess venom and fangs used in feeding and potentially in defense. Observe them through photographs, videos, or safely enclosed exhibits rather than handling wild spiders.

💡 Interesting Tarantula Facts for Kids

Tarantulas are spiders, not insects.
They belong to the family Theraphosidae.
They have eight walking legs.
Their bodies have two main regions.
A young tarantula is called a spiderling.
Tarantulas molt as they grow.
They produce silk.
Some live in trees, while others live in ground burrows.
Females protect their eggs in silk egg sacs.
Their life cycle does not include a pupal stage.

✏️ Tarantula Activities for Kids

A tarantula theme connects with arachnids, animal classification, habitats, predators, silk, and growth. Begin with a question such as “What makes a tarantula different from an insect?” and encourage children to support their answers with observations.

Build nonfiction reading skills with our Tarantulas Reading Passage and Comprehension Questions with Answer Key. Students can record a new fact, explain an unfamiliar word, and write a question for further investigation.

Add visual observation practice with our Tarantula Cut-and-Match Activity Worksheets. Ask children to explain which shapes or details helped them identify a match.

For a connected arachnid study, explore the Tarantula Life Cycle 3-in-1 Bundle as another option for your learning collection.

Finish by comparing a tarantula with a beetle. Students can create a chart showing leg numbers, body regions, and whether each animal has a pupal stage.