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I lure tarantulas from their burrows (for science)

Entomologist Jackie Billotte reconstructs the burrows and housekeeping habits of tarantulas, which help to keep insect and rodent populations under control in southeastern Colorado.
  1. Kendall Powell

    1. Kendall Powell is a freelance writer in Boulder, Colorado.

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Jackie Billotte holds the hardened plaster mold she made of a female tarantula den near Lamar, Colorado, U.S.

Based in Westminster, Colorado, Jackie Billotte is a PhD candidate in agricultural biology at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Credit: Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty

As part of my PhD thesis at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, I study the Texas brown tarantula (Aphonopelma hentzi) in the short-grass prairie. My colleagues and I work on the Southern Plains Land Trust, a piece of private conservation land about an hour south of Lamar, Colorado. These tarantulas’ habitats range from Louisiana to this southern part of Colorado. The prairie is a harsh environment — super dry, windy and sometimes very hot or cold. The tarantulas’ burrows become their lifeline; they stay in there for the long haul. Only the males, once mature, leave their burrows to wander aimlessly, looking for love.

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Nature 612, 368 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04335-7

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