Meet Demona!
Demona is a Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula. They are called “Rose Hairs”, “Flame Tarantulas”, “Fire Tarantulas”, or “Red-Haired Tarantulas” because of their distinctive pink-brown or pink-red colorings. Ms. Royal believes she is a girl (but doesn’t know for sure) and her species name is Grammostola rosea and they hail from the northern Atacama Desert region of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina and live in some of the driest deserts on earth.
Chilean Rose Hairs like Demona are burrowing spiders as they like digging a little burrows or holes in the ground to make their homes in. Then they make their webs on the ground around the entrance of their homes like a series of trip wires. Then they sit in their burrows and wait for insects like crickets to walk by and make vibrations on the spider’s ground web which tells the spider in their den that food’s coming. Then as the insect walks by the opening to the spider’s home, the spider jumps out and grabs the insect and takes it into its home to eat it. This is why Chilean Rose Hair Tarantulas are called “Ambush Predators,” because they ambush their prey!
Tarantulas like Demon have many ways of defending themselves, which is why Demona is left alone in her home and not taken out like Monty can be. They have large fangs with venom that hurts as bad as a bee sting, and special hairs called “urticating hairs” that they can throw like daggers with their feet! In 2009 a British man was working with his tarantula and it flung its hair and they got lodged in his eyes! Again, to be safe, we leave Demona in her home and only Ms. Royal will handle her when no one else is around.
Demona’s species is a common one in the pet trade; often these spiders are caught in the wild and shipped to the USA. Demona came to live with Ms. Royal when a student gave her to Ms. Royal as her parents wouldn’t let her keep Demona. Originally Demona was named Demon because the student thought she was a boy, but Ms. Royal thinks she’s really a girl (and they can live for 15 to 20 years!) hence why her name got changed to “Demona”.
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