I figured that title about tarantulas and their butts would get your attention! Tarantulas and their bodies are a mystery, and we are still learning SO much about them. We still have yet to learn all the ins and outs of their foreign body, from their nervous system to their respiratory system.

The way tarantulas breathe is no different. It’s weird, it’s foreign, and it’s so different than our own. To a beginner looking at a tarantula, they may not even know where to start when guessing where tarantulas breathe from. Many would likely guess they have a secret nose near their mouth or eyes, but that’s very far from the truth! In fact, for some beginning tarantula hobbyists, they might guess tarantulas were breathing through their butts!

Except, it’s not their butts at all. So, tarantulas don’t have lungs inside their chests like we do. Their lungs are called book lungs – and they actually appear to be on the underside of their bottoms! However, in tarantula bodies this is not called their butt at all – the back of a tarantula is actually called their ABDOMEN!

So, now that you know that tarantulas have lungs on their undersides, you may now understand why so many tarantula owners freak out when their slings look like they’re drowning in the water dish. While this is unlikely to happen, you definitely don’t want your tarantula to get water in their lungs!

Anyway, so how do these tarantula book lungs work? Book lungs get their name because they are basically thin stacked plates/membranes that give the appearance of the closed pages of a book. Between the plates, there is an air space and this allows air to circulate around the plates. Tarantulas have two pairs of book lungs.

So there you have it – tarantulas do NOT breathe through their butts – but it can sure look like it if you didn’t know this 🙂 If you’d like to learn more about tarantulas and their inner workings, check out my full tarantula guide!