The baboon spider, Pterinochilus murinus, an old-world tarantula. This species is normally found in Africa.
They’re known as “OBT,” which means “Orange Baboon Tarantula” or “Orange Bitey Thing,” in the Tarantula collector community. These nicknames were given to them in reference to the particular orange/copper color and they are usually prized for their beauty and confrontational personality.
This species is incredibly defensive and I wouldn’t ever recommend that anyone hold them. The bite from these little bastards are extremely painful even though they’re not that dangerous. They are more than willing to inflict a bite before presenting the typical threat display. And believe me, They Strike FAST. These are one of the select few tarantulas that get my heart racing because they move fast and will even chase you if they feel threatened. I used to own three of my own.
This one pictured here is a dead one that a friend of mine sent so that I can put it in my resin heart mold and I can get the resin from a wholesale resin supplier. I’m pouring the first couple layers of epoxy resin from squidpoxy.com tonight so that I can begin setting it in for her. Even though I am sure that this one is dead, it still freaks me out just remembering how they can go from perfectly still to striking at such speeds that you’ll miss it if you were to blink.
In my previous post, you can see one of the other tarantulas that I cast into resin. It came out really nice and is going to go on my friend’s Halloween dress this year along with the dead frog that she purchased. Here is a link to the previous post so that you can see it: http://the-dro.com/personal/dead-bug-resin-necklaces/
You can find more of the pieces I make on our Online Store.