Heteroscodra
Heteroscodra is a small African genus of tree-dwelling tarantulas holding just two species, one of which — the Togo starburst baboon spider — is among the fastest and most defensive tarantulas anyone is likely to meet. They carry no urticating hairs, they do not live in burrows, and their venom has become a standard tool in neuroscience laboratories.
By Dr Richard J. Pearce (PhD)Published September 7, 2019Updated September 13, 2026✓ Reviewed by Dr. James Watuwa
In this guide
Physical description and identification
Heteroscodra is a genus of arboreal African tarantulas in the subfamily Stromatopelminae. Only two species are recognised: Heteroscodra maculata, the well-known starburst or Togo baboon spider, and the much rarer Heteroscodra crassipes. Note the spelling — the species name is maculata, not "maculate", although the misspelling is widespread online.
Adults
- Size: a mature female spans roughly 12–14 cm (5–5.5 in) across the legs, with a body of about 5 cm. Older sources that give "14 cm long" are quoting leg span as if it were body length. Males have far smaller bodies but proportionally longer legs and often look almost spindly beside a female.
- Colour: a cool palette of pale grey, bone white, charcoal and black, arranged in mottling and chevrons rather than blocks of colour. On bark this reads as lichen and shadow, and a motionless spider is genuinely hard to pick out.
- Distinctive features: the rear legs are conspicuously thickened, giving the genus a top-heavy, weightlifter silhouette that no other African arboreal tarantula shares. A dark starburst radiates from the centre of the carapace. There is no urticating-hair patch: like all African and Asian theraphosids the genus lacks the barbed abdominal setae that New World spiders such as Aphonopelma kick at attackers.
- Speed: worth listing as a field character. Heteroscodra moves in short, near-instant bursts and is one of the quickest tarantulas of its size.
Eggs and egg sac
The female builds a silk sac inside her tree retreat, typically holding somewhere between fifty and a hundred and fifty eggs, and stays with it. Because the retreat sits inside a hollow trunk or a deep bark fissure, sacs are almost never seen in the field.
Spiderlings
Spiderlings emerge pale, darken over successive moults, and stay in and around the maternal retreat for a time before dispersing along branches to claim crevices of their own. Even at a centimetre across they are already arboreal and already fast.
The retreat, not a web
No Heteroscodra builds a snare web. Silk is used to line and partly seal a tube-shaped retreat inside a hollow limb, under loose bark or in a split trunk, with strands trailing out across the surrounding bark as tripwires. Older accounts describing these spiders as retreating into burrows have the lifestyle wrong: this is a bark-and-canopy genus, and a ground-level tunnel is not its home.
Where Heteroscodra spiders live
The genus is restricted to the tropical forests of West and Central Africa. Heteroscodra maculata is recorded from Togo — the source of one of its common names — along with Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and neighbouring states, while H. crassipes is known from far fewer localities in the same broad region.
Habitat is humid, shaded and vertical: primary and secondary rainforest, forest edge and older plantations, wherever trees are large enough to carry hollows, loose bark and deep fissures. Individuals are found several metres up rather than at ground level, and the species tolerates cultivated land well — banana and cocoa plantations with mature shade trees hold populations, which is the usual context for the rare encounters people have with them.
It is an entirely African genus. Anything sold or photographed as a "starburst baboon" outside that range is either a captive-bred specimen or a misidentification of an Asian arboreal such as Cyriopagopus.
Are Heteroscodra tarantulas venomous?
Yes, and this genus deserves more care than the usual "all tarantulas are venomous" answer. Older accounts calling a Heteroscodra bite "typically not harmful, though it may cause discomfort" understate what has actually been recorded.
Stromatopelminae venoms are among the more active Old World theraphosid venoms in mammals. Documented bites from this subfamily have produced severe local pain, marked swelling, and systemic effects including painful muscle cramping and spasms, sometimes well away from the bite site, that can persist for days. None of this is life-threatening to a healthy adult, no death has been attributed to the genus, and there is no antivenom for any tarantula because none is required — but "not deadly" is not the same as "trivial".
The venom has also earned a serious scientific reputation. A peptide isolated from Heteroscodra maculata, known as Hm1a, selectively activates the Nav1.1 sodium channel, and it has become a standard laboratory reagent for probing that channel's role in epilepsy — including work on Dravet syndrome — and in pain signalling.
Can Heteroscodra tarantulas bite?
They can, and among tarantulas they are relatively quick to. The first response to disturbance is a blur of movement, usually upward and out of reach. If that route is closed, the spider turns, lifts the front of the body with the fangs exposed, and will strike. Bites happen to people who handle the spider or reach into its retreat; nobody is bitten by a Heteroscodra minding its own business on a trunk.
The likely result is immediate, severe local pain, two puncture wounds, swelling and redness, followed in some cases by cramping or spasm in the muscles of the bitten limb, sweating and nausea that may begin hours later. Wash the site with soap and water, apply a cold pack, rest and elevate the limb, and take a simple analgesic. Get medical advice if pain is severe or spreading, if cramps or spasms develop, if breathing or swallowing is affected, or for a child, an older adult or anyone with a heart condition. A photograph of the spider helps a clinician. Do not cut, suck, tourniquet or heat the wound.
New World versus Old World, in one line: an American tarantula such as Avicularia answers a threat by flicking itchy barbed hairs and will usually run rather than bite. Heteroscodra has no hairs to flick, so its options are speed, a threat posture and the fangs. That is why the Old World arboreals are treated as look-only animals.
Ecological importance and behavior of Heteroscodra tarantulas
Heteroscodra is a nocturnal ambush predator that spends daylight jammed into a bark crevice or hollow and comes to the entrance of its retreat after dark. It takes prey by feel: a moth, roach, cricket, beetle, katydid or occasionally a small gecko or tree frog touches a trailing silk line, and the spider is on it before the vibration has finished travelling.
Natural predators: spider-hunting wasps of the family Pompilidae are the specialists, paralysing an adult and laying an egg on it. Forest birds including shrikes and hornbills, monkeys, arboreal snakes, geckos and driver ants all take them, and wandering mature males are by far the most exposed.
Prey–predator dynamics: by hunting several metres above the forest floor, the genus works a layer that ground-dwelling African tarantulas such as Hysterocrates and Pelinobius never reach, and a mature tree can hold several retreats at different heights.
Seasonal behaviour and lifespan: activity rises with the rains. Males mature after a few years, leave their retreats to search for females and rarely survive more than a season afterwards; females can live for around a decade, holding the same tree hollow for years. The often-quoted "males four years, females fourteen years" overstates both ends a little, but the pattern — short-lived males, long-lived females — is right.
Relationship with humans: the genus is popular in the exotic pet trade as a display animal, where it is firmly categorised as advanced-keeper only, kept in a tall enclosure with cork bark and never handled. In the wild the spiders are shy, rarely seen, and a straightforward benefit to plantation owners, since they take the same night-flying insects that damage crops.
Species in the genus and similar spiders
| Spider | What sets it apart |
|---|---|
| Togo starburst baboon (Heteroscodra maculata) | The species behind almost everything written about the genus. Grey, white and black mottling, thick rear legs, a carapace starburst, and the source of the Hm1a research toxin. |
| Heteroscodra crassipes | The second and much rarer species, described by Hirst in 1907 and known from little material. Separated from H. maculata on adult genitalia, not on colour. |
| Stromatopelma calceatum (feather leg baboon) | The closest relative, in the same subfamily and the same forests. Larger, warmer brown, with feathered leg hairs, and an even better documented record of painful envenomation. |
| Pterinochilus | Also African, also starburst-patterned, but golden to orange-brown, smaller, and an opportunistic ground-level silk-tent builder of East and southern African savanna. |
| Poecilotheria | The Asian equivalent: arboreal, fast, hairless in the urticating sense, but boldly banded in cream and black with a chevron pattern and restricted to India and Sri Lanka. |
| Avicularia | New World arboreals with pink toe pads and adhesive scopulae, dense urticating hairs, and a far milder temperament and bite. |
Quick facts
| Rank and authority | Genus Heteroscodra Pocock, 1899; family Theraphosidae, subfamily Stromatopelminae. |
|---|---|
| Species | Two: H. maculata (Pocock, 1899) and H. crassipes (Hirst, 1907). |
| Distribution | West and Central African rainforest — Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and neighbours. |
| Habitat | Arboreal: hollow trunks, bark fissures and split limbs in humid forest and shaded plantations. |
| Web type | No capture web. A silk-lined tube retreat with trailing trip lines across the bark. |
| Diet | Moths, crickets, cockroaches, beetles, katydids and occasionally small geckos and tree frogs. |
| Lifespan | Females around ten years; males die within a season of their final moult. |
| Predators | Pompilid wasps, forest birds, monkeys, arboreal snakes, geckos and driver ants. |
| Defence | Speed, then a threat posture, then a bite. No urticating hairs. |
| IUCN status | Not evaluated. Forest clearance is the main pressure on both species. |
Did you know?
- A toxin from Heteroscodra maculata, Hm1a, is one of the few tools that switches on a single sodium channel subtype, Nav1.1, which is why it turns up in epilepsy and pain research far from any spider laboratory.
- The genus was named in 1899 by Reginald Innes Pocock, the British zoologist who described a large share of the African and Asian tarantula fauna.
- Two species is a very small genus. Its nearest relatives, Stromatopelma and Encyocratella, are barely larger, making Stromatopelminae one of the smallest tarantula subfamilies.
- The "starburst" is on the carapace, not the abdomen — a detail that is routinely got wrong for this genus and for Pterinochilus alike.
In summary, Heteroscodra is a two-species African genus of fast, cryptic tree tarantulas with no urticating hairs and a bite worth taking seriously. Learn the thick rear legs and the grey lichen mottling and you will not mistake it for anything else in African forest.
Frequently asked questions about the heteroscodra
What does a Heteroscodra tarantula look like?
It is a mottled grey, white and black arboreal tarantula with a dark starburst radiating across the carapace and conspicuously thickened rear legs that give it a top-heavy outline. The cool lichen-like patterning is camouflage against bark. Females are much heavier bodied than males, which have proportionally longer legs.
How big do Heteroscodra tarantulas get?
A mature female spans roughly 12 to 14 cm across the outstretched legs, with a body around 5 cm long. Sources that describe females as 14 cm long are quoting leg span as body length. Males are smaller bodied but long-legged, and look noticeably slighter than a female.
Is a Heteroscodra bite dangerous?
It is painful and medically notable rather than deadly. Bites from this subfamily have caused severe local pain, swelling and muscle cramping or spasms that can last for days. No death has been attributed to the genus and no antivenom exists or is needed, but severe or spreading symptoms warrant medical review.
Do Heteroscodra tarantulas have urticating hairs?
No. Urticating hairs are a New World feature, found in American genera such as Aphonopelma and Brachypelma. Every African and Asian tarantula, Heteroscodra included, lacks them. With no hairs to flick as a warning, the genus relies on speed, a raised threat posture and, as a last resort, its fangs.
How many species of Heteroscodra are there?
Two. Heteroscodra maculata, described by Pocock in 1899, is the familiar starburst or Togo baboon spider, and Heteroscodra crassipes, described by Hirst in 1907, is known from very little material. The two are separated on the genitalia of adults rather than on colour or pattern.
Where do Heteroscodra tarantulas live in the wild?
In the rainforests of West and Central Africa, including Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon. They are arboreal, sheltering several metres up in hollow trunks, split limbs and deep bark fissures, and they also live in older plantations with mature shade trees.
Do Heteroscodra tarantulas build webs?
Not to catch prey. They spin a silk-lined tube retreat inside a tree hollow or under loose bark and run trailing threads out across the surrounding surface as tripwires. Prey touching a line is detected instantly. Silk is also used for the egg sac and to reinforce the retreat entrance.
Do Heteroscodra tarantulas live in burrows?
No, and this is a common error in older accounts. They are an arboreal genus and shelter in tree hollows and bark crevices, not in ground tunnels. Their African relatives Hysterocrates and Pelinobius are the true burrowers, and they look and behave quite differently.
How many eggs does a Heteroscodra lay?
A single sac typically holds somewhere between fifty and a hundred and fifty eggs. The female builds it inside her tree retreat and guards it there until the spiderlings emerge. Because the retreat is hidden inside a hollow or a bark fissure, egg sacs are almost never found in the field.
Are Heteroscodra tarantulas kept as pets?
They are kept, but by experienced keepers only and strictly as display animals in tall, bark-furnished enclosures. Their speed, their readiness to take a defensive posture, the absence of urticating hairs and the strength of their venom all make handling a bad idea. They are watched, never held.
References
- World Spider Catalog (2026). Heteroscodra Pocock, 1900. Natural History Museum Bern. wsc.nmbe.ch/genus-detail/3548/taxon
- Osteen, J. D. et al. (2016). Selective spider toxins reveal a role for the Nav1.1 channel in mechanical pain. Nature 534: 494–499. doi.org/10.1038/nature17976
