Hysterocrates gigas is a member of the tarantula family, Theraphosidae found in Cameroon.

[citation needed] This is a burrowing spider and ranges in color from a dull black and gray to a rusty orange/brown.

This tarantula, in common with the rest of the family, has downward-facing, parallel fangs, used like pickaxes rather than pincers.

According to Sam Marshall (an arachnologist, and subject of the book "The Tarantula Scientist"), they dig particularly intricate burrows.

[2] These tarantulas will eat other invertebrates, such as crickets, cockroaches, butterflies, moths[3] and other spiders or small vertebrates, such as mice, lizards, frogs, snakes and occasionally birds.

Spiderlings live together for up to 6 months, though some tarantulas from the same sac are believed to co-habitate long after and even share burrows and tunnel systems.

It is a misnomer - it was originally given to a smaller wolf spider from Taranto, Italy, where, in the Middle Ages, people danced themselves into a trance - called the tarantella - in an attempt to purge the effects of the wolf spider's bite.

During this time the tarantula is lying on its back with its legs in the air, very vulnerable to other creatures - even some that would normally be its prey.

Its natural enemies are mammals, birds, reptiles, wasps, ants, amphibians, big crickets, scorpions, and other tarantulas which prey on them.