[1] A burrowing species, the curlyhair tarantula is found in tropical scrubland, either around the base of large trees, near rivers, or in patches of cleared rain forest.

The tarantula holds its prey with its pedipalps (front limbs) and injects it with venom delivered via two hollow fangs.

Once the venom has acted the tarantula is able to suck up the proteins and fats of its prey, leaving just a small ball of undigested body parts.

[3] This usually docile tarantula will kick hairs off the abdomen with its hind legs when threatened, which cause blindness if they hit the eyes of a predator and can also cause a rash on the skin.

Once captured in large numbers for the international pet trade, the curlyhair tarantula is now bred in captivity worldwide and relatively few are caught in the wild.

This article incorporates text from the ARKive fact-file "Tliltocatl albopilosus" under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License and the GFDL.