This fellow was on stage with one of my singers last night. Told the singer to keep singing and not turn around, and swept it off the stage. Fun moment!

Sweet! You can check that one off your lifelist!

Bear - Ironically, that's almost word-for-word what I said!

At least you didn't scream like a little girl.

Or at least if I did, it was covered by the sound system...

"bucket list" being the alternate? lmao!

Thats a mature male Brachypelma vagans, commonly known as a Mexican Red Rump. I see the males every year when we're on AC. The males wander around once they are mature looking for females to mate with while the females usually don't stray far from their burrow and are much less likely to be seen. You can tell it's a male by the small hooks or spurs that are under the two front legs. The males use these to engage the fangs of the females during mating so they can complete their business before the female makes a meal of them.
There are about eight species of tarantula in Belize and Brachypelma vagans are found pretty much country wide. I have yet to find any other species on AC although I keep looking.

Thanks Eskimo, it's always a good thing to learn more about the world around us. And I think we men can all learn a lesson from, "You can tell it's a male by the small hooks or spurs that are under the two front legs. The males use these to engage the fangs of the females during mating so they can complete their business before the female makes a meal of them."

Additional Forum Discourse, Guidance and Declarations of Masculinity by Elbert and SimonB

lol..............not for the feint hearted amongst you - which includes me!!!

I see nothing wrong with screaming like a girl ;-) I have engaged in that practice each and every time I have found one of the eight legged harbingers of terror in my house. Three times to be exact. And once when Fido's cat jumped out of a hidey hole on stage and scared the curly out of my hair.

L'Red I'll take that to mean you were smart enough avoid the hazards of underestimation as portrayed in the linked thread on the Photograph Board. lol!

Actually most red rumps are quite docile. Here's a couple of females:

I enticed this female from her burrow in front of the Jaguar Temple at Lamanai.



And this one lives a little west of San Ignacio

Indeed they are and quite amazing as well