Tarantula

"But if it's the all the same to you, I think I'll stick with tarantulas. At least you expect them to bite...!"

- Indiana Jones

A tarantula is a type of large hairy arachnid, with about 900 known species. They live in most parts of the world, including Africa, South America, Australia and the southern parts of North America, south and southeast Asia and even some parts of southern [[Europe]. Some tarantulas are large enough to kill small birds, mice and lizards. Most tarantulas are not strongly venomous to humans.

Adventures with tarantulas
In 1936, Indiana Jones and Satipo entered the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors in Peru. In one of the entry chambers, a large swarm of tarantulas began to crawl on the two men, and Satipo got Jones' attention about the spiders. Using his bullwhip, Jones brushed off a few that were crawling on his own back, then brushed off the multitude that that were crawling over his guide.

Later that year, Jones sought to enter the Hopi cave in Arizona, which was now being used as a criminal hideout by Busby Giles. Seeing two thugs guarding the mountaintop smoke hole, Jones gathered a bag full of tarantulas and threw it at the two men. Pulling on a rope, Jones opened the bag, and the hairy spiders fell out, and landed on the guards. Distracted by the tarantulas, Mel and his partner were no match for Jones, who knocked them out, and crawled down the smoke hole.

In 1957, while exploring Chauchilla Cemetery in Peru, Indiana Jones and Mutt Williams encountered some spider silk which Jones surmised was spun by the Peruvian giant knee-stripe, a type of giant tarantula. Later, as Jones pulled on a skull, a tarantula ran across his hand, not affecting Jones, but frightening Williams.

Appearances

 * Raiders of the Lost Ark
 * Raiders of the Lost Ark storybook
 * "Deadly Rock!"
 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel