Quote Originally Posted by Hoomi
OK, I guess I may be showing some ignorance here, Marcus, but do tarantulas not count as "true" spiders?

Well, tarantulas are in fact, spiders. Big spiders. The term "true spiders" is merely a term that is used to describe spiders that are not tarantulas. Tarantulas are described (generally) as large, heavy bodied, hairy spiders. "True spiders" would include everything but tarantulas (if I'm not mistaken). Spiders such as Black Widows, Wolf Spiders, Black hole spiders (Kukulkania hibernalis), etc.....

I'd have to do some research to get you some more information if you're interested further, because it's really merely a description and once you get into scientific descriptions, it can get pretty technical. And, science it subject to changing their descriptions about things on a fairly regular basis (at least with arachnids).


Let me know if you need more information.

Marcus