Spiders and Tarantulas of India: Diversity, Ecology and Conservation

Spider, insect, scorpion, or tarantula?

A spider is an arachnid in the order Araneae. It has eight legs, two main body regions, fangs, and silk-making spinnerets.

• Spider. Eight legs, two body regions, fangs, and spinnerets. Not every spider builds a capture web.
• Insect. A separate class, Insecta. Six legs, three body regions, and one pair of antennae.
• Scorpion. Also an arachnid, with eight legs, large pincers, and a segmented, stinging tail.
• Tarantula. A spider in family Theraphosidae. It has the full spider body plan, usually with a sturdy, hairy build.

Webs are only one hunting method

• Orb-weavers. Build the familiar round webs that catch flying insects.
• Stalkers and ambushers. Jumping spiders leap onto prey; wolf spiders hunt on foot without any web.
• Tarantulas. Many wait near a silk-lined retreat. Some live in ground burrows, while India’s Poecilotheria tarantulas live in trees.
• Moulting. A spider’s hard outer covering cannot stretch, so it sheds this covering to grow. The new covering is soft at first, so a moulting spider should be left undisturbed.

Silk does far more than catch prey. It also builds egg cases, shelters, and safety lines, so a spider without a capture web is still making constant use of silk.

Many habitats, many ways to live

• India’s spider checklists keep changing as researchers describe new species and revise old names, so a fixed national count quickly goes out of date.
• Forests offer tree hollows and leaf litter. Fields, gardens, and wetlands offer different prey and shelter.
• Orb-weavers turn up in vegetation, while hunting spiders roam leaves or soil. Colour alone can never confirm a species identification.
• The Gooty tarantula’s known Indian range sits in the Eastern Ghats, spanning Andhra Pradesh with a published Tamil Nadu record farther south.

A tree-living spider with a small known range

The Gooty tarantula is Poecilotheria metallica. Its metallic blue colour makes it memorable, but colour alone cannot prove an identification.

• It lives in trees and hunts prey directly, rather than building a round capture web.
• An older assessment described a very narrow Andhra Pradesh range. A 2019 field paper reported it farther south, in Tamil Nadu.
• Read the detailed Gooty tarantula lesson for the full species story.

Three different conservation labels

• IUCN. The International Union for Conservation of Nature assesses extinction risk. Its published Gooty assessment reads Critically Endangered.
• CITES. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species controls cross-border trade. It lists the entire Poecilotheria genus in Appendix II.
• Indian law. The Wild Life (Protection) Act lists the Gooty tarantula in Schedule II, a purely domestic legal schedule.

Natural pest control and food webs

• Spiders eat insects and other small animals. Research shows spiders can help suppress crop pests.
• They also become food for birds, lizards, and other predators, so removing spiders disturbs both sides of this food web.
• One spider never replaces farming controls. Habitat care and careful pesticide use support many useful predators at once.

Venom, myths, and sensible safety

• Most spiders use venom to subdue prey. That does not make every spider dangerous to people.
• Some bites can still hurt, and reactions vary. Indian ornamental tarantula bites deserve caution.
• Do not handle an unknown spider. Step back and let it move away on its own.
• If bitten, wash the area and seek medical advice. Seek urgent care for severe pain, breathing trouble, or spreading symptoms.

What threatens India’s spiders

• Forest loss removes tree hollows and shelter that forest spiders depend on. Heavy pesticide use can harm spiders in farm habitats.
• Collecting rare tarantulas as pets adds extra pressure. A colourful spider is never a lawful souvenir.
• Protecting habitat matters more than moving a single spider. Report suspected illegal collection to local wildlife authorities.

India’s first count of a spider that had never been counted

In 2026, the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department launched India’s first-ever scientific survey dedicated to the Gooty tarantula.

• The survey runs inside Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, the species’ core known habitat in the Eastern Ghats.
• The Forest Department is working with the non-profit Eastern Ghats Wildlife Society. The UK’s Wingham Wildlife Park is the technical partner, since it keeps captive European populations of the species.
• The goal is to map population size, exact distribution, and microhabitat conditions. The Nandyal-Giddalur forest strip in Andhra Pradesh is the historically documented range and the focal survey area. A published 2019 record from Pakkam Malai Reserve Forest near Gingee, Tamil Nadu, lies farther south in the Eastern Ghats.
• Before this survey, the Gooty tarantula’s Critically Endangered status rested on limited field data. This is the first real attempt to count it directly.