Got to do a speech for school...

Mustacherose

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 17, 2004
Messages
98
Hey Guys I have to do a speech in school and I did mine on T's.


Can you guys check if all these facts are accurate? 9Oh yeah, and lol, mr. Mcdonald is one of my teachers.)



Speech

What’s hairy, creepy, kinda cool and ferocious? Mr.McDonald back in the seventies? No. Tarantulas? Yes. Good morning/Afternoon Miss.Duggan and fellow classmates. Today I will be talking to you about tarantulas, specifically the Chilean Rose, where they live in the wild and how they live in captivity. I will also be talking about common misconceptions about tarantulas. I will talk to you about what they eat, where to get one, and molting.
Arachnids can be broken down into true spiders and primitive spiders. The spiders that you find in your garden that spin webs are true spiders. Tarantulas are primitive spiders.

Tarantulas are called primitive spiders because their jaws move side to side instead of up and down. They are also “primitive” because they don’t use webs to catch their prey. They wait for their dimwitted prey to walk by and they bite it. Then they spend several hours happily sucking away at it.

I have a Chilean Rose. She is my first Tarantula and her name is Mustache.
Like all tarantulas, she has 8 eyes, 8 legs and a pair of little mouth parts called pedipalps on either side of her mouth. The pedipalps are kind of like hands to handle her food. Some other commonly available species are Mexican Redknees, and the Pink Toe tarantula.

The Chilean Roses habitat in the wild would be in a rainforest in Chile. It would consist of a “home” which is where they go to eat their food and treat everywhere else as “hunting grounds”. In captivity my tarantula has a log for her to burrow under, a piece of cork bark to sit on, a big plant and one long log to climb on. She also has peat moss on the bottom of the cage. I keep all this in a 10 gallon vivarium. A vivarium is an aquarium with all the things a land animal needs. My tarantula eats around six live crickets a week. It takes her probably 2 days to fully digest and eat all her food.

True spiders are also found EVERYWHERE in the world except in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic. Tarantulas only live in warm climates.

Some common misconceptions about tarantulas are that they are all deadly poisonous. They aren’t. No tarantula has venom that is lethal to humans. A tarantulas venom is produced in a gland between the two chelicerae (Fangs). Tarantula venom has digestive enzymes in it, so the tarantula dissolves the insect from the inside out and then makes a insect “milkshake” and slurps it all down. When the spider wants to inject venom into its prey its very fast and efficient. Another common misconception is that they are very fast and will always bite you. Tarantulas rarely bite humans because they know, however simple minded they may be, that they will not win the fight, and even if they did, it wouldn’t hurt you very much.

Adult tarantulas are not very fast and in fact are quite slow. Baby tarantulas however, are very fast and If you hold one it will run off your hand and poof, there goes your tarantula. Another common misconception is that males are always bigger. The fact is, males are always SMALLER.

Also, did you know tarantulas have four lungs? No, I didn’t think you would. These are called book lungs and are located in their abdomen.

Tarantulas will eat crickets, mealworms, baby mice, and even small lizards. I feed my tarantula 6 medium sized crickets a week and she is around the size of my hand with her legs stretched out. A good rule is you can feed your tarantula anything half it’s size. I would advise against feeding your tarantula anything caught from the wild because they might be infected with pesticides or other chemicals that would be potentially dangerous to your Tarantula. Another common feed insect is cockroaches.

If you want to get a tarantula you can go to pretty much any pet store. If you want one of the more exotic species then you can get it from an Internet dealer. I can recommend the Reptile Store in Hamilton because of nice, knowledgable staff and a huge selection. That store also sells reptiles, hence its name.

Molting is when a tarantula sheds its exoskeleton and grows another. Molting occurs when the tarantulas muscles and tissues get too big for its current exoskeleton so it pops open his carapace like a lid, and climbs out. You might think this would be messy and bloody but its not because the tarantulas exoskeleton is on the outside. When a tarantula molts it will make a bed of web on the ground and flop over on its back and try and wiggle out of its old exoskeleton . Sometimes this will take a day, sometimes only an hour depending on the condition and species of your tarantula.


In conclusion, I hope that you have gained an insight into the amazing world of tarantulas. I have covered their exotic lodging, their gourmet tastes, their decorating preferences, their ways of gaining new wardrobes, and how they are often misunderstood.


Any comments will be appreciated.
 

JohnxII

Avicoholic
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 21, 2004
Messages
899
Welcome to the bestest T forum around!

Yeah a few errors here and there. Refer to the [thread=5292]Rosie Sticky[/thread] at the top of this forum. Also check out Todd's guide. BTW, tarantula is just a wrongly used but well-established common name for theraphosidae, but I don't think you to need to cover this in your talk ;). See this link if you're interested.

Enjoy your stay, and good luck for your little presentation! And do you plan to bring Mustache along?
 
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metzgerzoo

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 12, 2003
Messages
984
I'm just going to do the "red ink" thing here after each paragraph. ;)

Mustacherose said:
Hey Guys I have to do a speech in school and I did mine on T's.


Can you guys check if all these facts are accurate? 9Oh yeah, and lol, mr. Mcdonald is one of my teachers.)



Speech

What’s hairy, creepy, kinda cool and ferocious? Mr.McDonald back in the seventies? No. Tarantulas? Yes. Good morning/Afternoon Miss.Duggan and fellow classmates. Today I will be talking to you about tarantulas, specifically the Chilean Rose, where they live in the wild and how they live in captivity. I will also be talking about common misconceptions about tarantulas. I will talk to you about what they eat, where to get one, and molting.
Arachnids can be broken down into true spiders and primitive spiders. The spiders that you find in your garden that spin webs are true spiders. Tarantulas are primitive spiders.

Tarantulas are called primitive spiders because their jaws move side to side instead of up and down. They are also “primitive” because they don’t use webs to catch their prey. They wait for their dimwitted prey to walk by and they bite it. Then they spend several hours happily sucking away at it.

I have a Chilean Rose. She is my first Tarantula and her name is Mustache.
Like all tarantulas, she has 8 eyes, 8 legs and a pair of little mouth parts called pedipalps on either side of her mouth. The pedipalps are kind of like hands to handle her food. Some other commonly available species are Mexican Redknees, and the Pink Toe tarantula.
Not all tarantulas have 8 eyes, some species have 6. The pedipalps are often viewed as antennae. They are not the mouth parts.

The Chilean Roses habitat in the wild would be in a rainforest in Chile. It would consist of a “home” which is where they go to eat their food and treat everywhere else as “hunting grounds”. In captivity my tarantula has a log for her to burrow under, a piece of cork bark to sit on, a big plant and one long log to climb on. She also has peat moss on the bottom of the cage. I keep all this in a 10 gallon vivarium. A vivarium is an aquarium with all the things a land animal needs. My tarantula eats around six live crickets a week. It takes her probably 2 days to fully digest and eat all her food.
G. rosea is a desert species, not a rainforest species. Generally in the wild, they will burrow or will use a burrow from another animal. In captivity they rarely ever burrow and are most often content with a hide/cave. Rarely will a tarantula venture farther than several inches from it's burrow enterence to hunt in the wild
True spiders are also found EVERYWHERE in the world except in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic. Tarantulas only live in warm climates.

Some common misconceptions about tarantulas are that they are all deadly poisonous. They aren’t. No tarantula has venom that is lethal to humans. A tarantulas venom is produced in a gland between the two chelicerae (Fangs). Tarantula venom has digestive enzymes in it, so the tarantula dissolves the insect from the inside out and then makes a insect “milkshake” and slurps it all down. When the spider wants to inject venom into its prey its very fast and efficient. Another common misconception is that they are very fast and will always bite you. Tarantulas rarely bite humans because they know, however simple minded they may be, that they will not win the fight, and even if they did, it wouldn’t hurt you very much.
The chelicerae and the fangs are two different things. Tarantulas will typically run first, then warn, usually with a threat pose, slap second, usually with the first pair of legs and if everything fails then and only then, bite. More often than not, a tarantula will not attack a human because we are 1. not a suitable food source and 2. much bigger than they are
Adult tarantulas are not very fast and in fact are quite slow. Baby tarantulas however, are very fast and If you hold one it will run off your hand and poof, there goes your tarantula. Another common misconception is that males are always bigger. The fact is, males are always SMALLER.
This entire statement needs to be reworked. It is very misleading in that some adult tarantulas are in fact very fast as opposed to their spiderling counterparts and vice versa. Also, males are NOT always smaller. Generally, their legs tend to be longer and they tend to be slimer, especially in the abdomen, but not necessairly smaller than the female.
Also, did you know tarantulas have four lungs? No, I didn’t think you would. These are called book lungs and are located in their abdomen.

Tarantulas will eat crickets, mealworms, baby mice, and even small lizards. I feed my tarantula 6 medium sized crickets a week and she is around the size of my hand with her legs stretched out. A good rule is you can feed your tarantula anything half it’s size. I would advise against feeding your tarantula anything caught from the wild because they might be infected with pesticides or other chemicals that would be potentially dangerous to your Tarantula. Another common feed insect is cockroaches.

If you want to get a tarantula you can go to pretty much any pet store. If you want one of the more exotic species then you can get it from an Internet dealer. I can recommend the Reptile Store in Hamilton because of nice, knowledgable staff and a huge selection. That store also sells reptiles, hence its name.

Molting is when a tarantula sheds its exoskeleton and grows another. Molting occurs when the tarantulas muscles and tissues get too big for its current exoskeleton so it pops open his carapace like a lid, and climbs out. You might think this would be messy and bloody but its not because the tarantulas exoskeleton is on the outside. When a tarantula molts it will make a bed of web on the ground and flop over on its back and try and wiggle out of its old exoskeleton . Sometimes this will take a day, sometimes only an hour depending on the condition and species of your tarantula.
"pops open his carapace like a lid, and climbs out" not necessairly. Usually the abdomen splits and the tarantula wiggles its self free. Also, molting time length depends on somewhat different factors. Condition of the tarantula can play a part in how long a molt will take but species has nothing to do with it. Size, however, does. A spiderling will take less time to molt than an adult will.

In conclusion, I hope that you have gained an insight into the amazing world of tarantulas. I have covered their exotic lodging, their gourmet tastes, their decorating preferences, their ways of gaining new wardrobes, and how they are often misunderstood.


Any comments will be appreciated.
Over all I think it's a very good talk. Somewhat choppy but hey, we aren't perfect and you probably don't do this on a regular basis ;) If you have the time before your presentation, perhaps you could revamp the order of subjects so that the talk and subject changes flow a little smoother.

Good luck and let us know how it comes out! :D
 

Sheri

Arachnoking
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Dec 29, 2003
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Mustacherose said:
True spiders are also found EVERYWHERE in the world except in Antarctica and the Canadian Arctic. Tarantulas only live in warm climates.
There are none in Canada at all, arctic portions or not. (Not all of Canada is Arctic)

You may want to add which states tarantulas are found in. For example, the stupid people you're speaking to might think they could find one in Minnesota, or North Dakota, or New York.
 

Mustacherose

Arachnosquire
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Joined
Nov 17, 2004
Messages
98
Lol I am canadian :)

Thanks for all your comments, im presenting it today, I'll tell all you guys how it goes.

P.S. Good thing my teacher thinks tarantulas are insects :)

PS.S. I changed my T's cage around so she wouldn't have to burrow and instead I made one for her out of bark

Thanks
 
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Randolph XX()

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i got the same oral presentation for advance communication class of "describing an object", gonna bring my Avic with me, but i only have 10 mins to explain everything
 

Washout

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Sep 18, 2004
Messages
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Also tarantula venom does not typically contain digestive juices. And they do not inject it into the prey and then slurp it out. They spew digestive juice onto the prey directly and then mash it up and run it through a filter in the mouthparts.
 

Mustacherose

Arachnosquire
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Joined
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Messages
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Washout said:
Also tarantula venom does not typically contain digestive juices. And they do not inject it into the prey and then slurp it out. They spew digestive juice onto the prey directly and then mash it up and run it through a filter in the mouthparts.
Shh.... My teacher doesnt know that yet... :D

To what age level are you aiming this speach?
we have to present to the grade 7's in my school.

So... 12, 11 year olds?
 

ShaunHolder

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metzgerzoo said:
The pedipalps are often viewed as antennae
For all intesive purposes, the pedipalps are pretty much the "hands" of the arachnids. Thier primary fucntions are for catching of prey, and touching/manipulating thier prey. Also, Male's use thier pedipalps to hold and deliver sperm during mating. I don't think a correction is needed here. It is a generalization, but not misleading. :)
 

SpiderZone2

Arachnoknight
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Oct 23, 2005
Messages
284
re: speach

Also another thing as don't let size fool you as I have many large species and they can move like lightning! Just because they are big does not mean that they are slow at all. I have a Lasiodora Parahybana and she is 8 and a quarter inches and she moves like lightning even at her size. She still climbs up the glass of the 10 gallon aqauruim that I have her in. Also the Meteroscodra maculata is fast also along with several others that are of 6 inches or more in span. Size doesn't always mean they are slow. :)
 

Cirith Ungol

Ministry of Fluffy Bunnies
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Tarantulas are called primitive spiders because their jaws move side to side instead of up and down.
It's the other way arround.

A vivarium is an aquarium with all the things a land animal needs.
A vivarium is a terrarium in which you are keeping live plants. If you put an animal there it's still a vivarium.

Tarantulas will typically run first, then warn, usually with a threat pose, slap second, usually with the first pair of legs and if everything fails then and only then, bite. More often than not, a tarantula will not attack a human because we are 1. not a suitable food source and 2.
Add "Most" in the beginning, you havn't met H. lividum or "OBT" yet but they might just go for a bite first, then possibly retreat... but these I guess are unimportant details at the mo.

A good rule is you can feed your tarantula anything half it’s size.
Half the bodies size, otherwise it might be mistaken for half the legspan.

You could also clarify the difference between spiders and insects:
Spiders: Two body segments, eight legs
Insects: Three body segments, six legs, wings (in many species only the males, for example ants, roaches...)

Good text though, I hope you can get people interested! Good luck!
 
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AussieTkeeper

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Aug 12, 2005
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Molting is when a tarantula sheds its exoskeleton and grows another. Molting occurs when the tarantulas muscles and tissues get too big for its current exoskeleton

well Ts dont have much muscle at all most of there movement comes from hydrolic pressure, there is a artcile on it but im unsure where i saw it
 
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