Heteroscodra maculata
Togo Starburst Baboon Tarantula: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: One of the two most medically significant tarantulas in the hobby (the other is Stromatopelma calceatum): the Togo starburst: peptide-rich venom, documented hospital-visit bites, and a tarantula that will deliberately attack rather than retreat. Erratic, fast, and absolutely a no-contact, experienced-Old-World-keepers-only animal. Adults reach about 5 inches across.
Group: Industry StaplesDifficulty: Spice 4: AdvancedSetup: Arboreal / semi-arboreal (heavy web)Handling: NEVER
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 75-82°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | Moderate ambient (60-75%) with cross ventilation; slightly damp substrate, dry webbing |
| Setup Type | Arboreal / semi-arboreal (heavy web) |
| Substrate | Slightly moist soil/coco mix; deep-substrate option; heavy webbing / dirt-curtain decor |
| Feeding | Medium-fast feeder: slings weekly, adults every 1-2 weeks |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 4: Advanced |
| Handling | NEVER |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Compact secure enclosure while it's a tiny sling
- Vertical bark setup with heavy webbing anchor points for juveniles
- Taller heavily-webbed vertical arboreal build for the adult
Warnings First
- Medically significant venom: bites have sent keepers to hospital (sharp pain, swelling, numbness, hours of throbbing)
- Will deliberately attack rather than retreat; erratic bolting
- Experienced Old-World keepers only: staged catch cup every time, no kids or pets in the room during maintenance
- Heavy webbing and dirt curtains block airflow by design. Vent low on one wall and high on the opposite wall so the retreat behind the silk still gets fresh air.
Simple Care
- Vertical cork with heavy webbing and dirt-curtain decor; slightly moist substrate.
- Cross-ventilation: vents low on one wall and high on the opposite wall, so air gets past the silk rather than stopping at it.
- Shallow water dish with pebbles in it so slings cannot drown.
- Never handle; never open without a catch cup staged and a plan.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- A single species: H. maculata (Togo starburst / ornamental baboon), West Africa (Togo, Ghana). Arboreal/semi-arboreal: a vertical cork setup with heavy webbing, plus the option of deeper substrate; they build dirt curtains and silk retreats.
- Cross-ventilation and a water dish; slightly moist substrate. Otherwise the husbandry is simple: it's the temperament and venom that make this advanced-only.
- The heavy webbing is the reason ventilation placement matters more here than on a bare-cork arboreal. Dirt curtains and dense silk are effectively baffles: they block air movement exactly where the spider sits. Put vents low on one wall at substrate level and high on the opposite wall, so there is a real pressure path across the enclosure rather than air that stops at the first silk sheet. A lid vent above a dirt curtain ventilates the empty space above the spider and nothing else.
- Ventilation and ambient humidity are one trade. Hold 60 to 75% by keeping the substrate slightly moist and running a water dish, with the vents flowing. Do not raise humidity by closing the enclosure up, because the webbing already reduces effective airflow inside.
- Judge by touch rather than by gauge. Substrate slightly damp with no free water, silk and cork faces dry, no condensation on the walls. On a heavily webbed enclosure, check the glass behind the curtain, since that is where moisture collects first.
- Keep a shallow water dish with pebbles or coarse grit so the waterline sits below the rim. Slings drown in open dishes, and on a species you want to open as rarely as possible, permanently safe drinking water is worth building in from the start.
- Mist the open substrate away from the silk rather than through the webbing. Moisture rising through moving air keeps the ground-level microclimate right, while soaking the curtain leaves a damp silk mass with no airflow behind it.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Medium-fast feeder: slings weekly, adults every week or two.
- This is one of the few tarantulas keepers describe as genuinely aggressive: it will move toward a threat. Every interaction is planned, tool-based, with a catch cup staged and the room cleared.
- Molting: a premolt tarantula turns sluggish, seals up its silk retreat, and refuses food for days or even weeks. Pull any uneaten feeders, leave it strictly alone, and wait 5-10 days after the molt (until the new fangs and exoskeleton harden) before feeding again.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: West Africa: Togo and Ghana.
- Habitat translation: Vertical cork enclosure with heavy webbing and dirt-curtain decor, slightly moist substrate, cross-ventilation, and a water dish: built so the keeper never has to be near the spider.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Adult size ~5 in DLS; medium-fast growth; females ~10-12 years.
- On the boards' 'worst tarantula venom' rankings, H. maculata and Stromatopelma calceatum sit at the top: peptide-rich venom with documented bite reports of severe pain, swelling, numbness and hours of throbbing, and hospital visits; even a sling-bite report on record is severe.
- For experienced Old World keepers only. Double-containment, long tongs, catch cup always staged, no other people or pets in the room during maintenance.