Eucratoscelus pachypus

A very unique looking African Baboon spider with distinctive long brushes of setae and incrassate tibia of the rear legs gives it a wonderful feathered appearance. This medium sized Tarantula is often available but rarely bred with 99% of all specimens being offered are wild caught. This species is very hard to breed with only a handful of successful breeding being known. Its natural habitat is open Savannah and scrub land where it lives in deep burrows. It is a fossorial species and must be kept in dry conditions with deep substrate to allows the spider to excavate a deep burrow, which it lines with webbing. A water bowl can be used but is not necessary if you keep part of the substrate moistened around its hiding area. Sometimes these Tarantulas do not seem eager to dig but you can prompt them to do so by starting to dig a hole in the corner of the terrarium.

An interesting behaviour in this species is that they sometimes use their back legs to block the entrance of their burrow. Another species in the same genus is Eucratoscelus constrictus (Gerstäcker, 1873) from Kenya. This species differs in very few characteristics so further studies may consider them to be synonymous. As with most African species it is not a docile species but is not as defensive as offers and would prefer to escape and hide rather than stand its ground and attack If you looking for a challenge this is a good species to start a breeding project with and all attempts should be made to try and breed this species as should Tanzania close for export this species could be lost to the hobby.