Avicularia purpurea

🔤 Taxonomy

Avicularia purpurea Kirk, 1990 is an accepted species in the World Spider Catalog. Fukushima and Bertani’s 2017 revision examined northern and southern forms and retained both within the species while documenting variation in colour. “Purple pinktoe” is useful as a hobby name, but colour alone cannot authenticate stock.

English common names used in the hobby:

• Purple pinktoe tarantula
• Ecuadorian purple tarantula
• Ecuador purple pinktoe

📌 Description

This medium arboreal tarantula usually reaches about 11-14 cm legspan. Mature animals have dark velvety colour with a purple sheen that changes with angle and lighting. Juveniles are more metallic green and carry a contrasting abdominal pattern; that pattern fades as they mature. Northern and southern populations differ subtly, so a seller’s photograph is not a substitute for locality records.

Females may live about 10-12 years, while mature males have a much shorter adult life. The species is quick, capable of jumping, and inclined to build a dense silk tube high in its enclosure. It is a display animal for a keeper comfortable with arboreal rehousing rather than a spider for handling.

☠️ Venom and safety

A bite from Avicularia purpurea can cause puncture wounds, pain and swelling. Human bite reports are too uneven to predict an individual reaction or assign a precise venom potency to every species. Do not interpret a quiet animal or a “mild venom” label as permission to handle it.

Urticating hairs are a separate hazard: they can irritate skin and injure eyes. Avoid rubbing exposed skin or eyes; suspected eye exposure needs prompt medical assessment. Keep your face away from the enclosure and wear eye protection and gloves when removing molts or used substrate.

Use long tools and a catch cup, with a second containment tub for transfers in a closed room. Keep hands out of retreats and webbing, do not hand-feed, and do not chase an escaping spider. Keep transfers low to limit fall injuries to the animal.

After a bite, wash the wound with soap and water and contact a poison centre or medical service with the scientific name and time of exposure. Seek urgent care for severe or spreading pain, muscle cramps or persistent symptoms; call emergency services for breathing difficulty, throat swelling or collapse. Do not cut the wound or try to extract venom. Treatment focuses on wound assessment and symptom control under medical supervision.

🌍 Distribution

The current World Spider Catalog and the 2017 revision document A. purpurea from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Examined material included the Tena and Puerto Napo region of Ecuador and Iquitos in Peru. The revision reports arboreal retreats in tree holes, epiphytes, palms, and citrus-like trees, as well as houses and other structures. Some records came from cultivated land, pasture with scattered trees, forest edges, and gallery forest rather than unbroken closed canopy.

This breadth does not justify leaving the captive enclosure dry or exposed. The spider occupies sheltered cavities wrapped in silk and debris. Provide an upper retreat with cover, a moisture reserve below, and strong airflow around it.

🌡 Climate across the native range

Monthly normals from reviewed northern and southern occurrence areas:

Weather data by Open-Meteo.com · CC BY 4.0 · Monthly normals calculated by Herpeton Academy from daily archive values.

Location references use GBIF.org occurrence data where available; original occurrence records retain their source dataset licenses.

⚖️ Legal status

The official CITES Appendices and Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383 were checked on 2026-08-06. Avicularia purpurea was not found in the CITES Appendices or EU Annexes A-D. The Bern Convention does not apply because the species is not native to Europe. These findings concern international wildlife-trade lists, not every export or ownership rule.

Choose captive-produced animals and retain a dated invoice with the scientific name, breeder or seller identity, and any locality claim. Keep import or transfer records when relevant. Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru can regulate wildlife collection and export independently, while destination countries may control venomous invertebrates, sale, transport, exhibition, or tenancy.

🤌 Husbandry

Keep this species alone. An adult enclosure around 25 x 25 x 40 cm is a reasonable minimum, with greater height acceptable when branches and cork make it usable. Cross-ventilation is non-negotiable: provide small openings on opposing sides both above and below the main retreat. Top ventilation alone often leaves humid air trapped among dense webbing.

Install a vertical cork slab or tube before introducing the spider. Add foliage and thin branches so it can connect a silk sleeve from cork to wall without webbing the door shut. Use 5-8 cm of absorbent substrate and leave limited fall distance beneath exposed climbing surfaces. Place a water dish on the ground and, if practical, a second small cup higher up.

Spiderlings should begin in smaller vertical containers with the same cross-flow and abundant anchor points. Their setup dries quickly, but keeping every surface wet is equally dangerous. Move them up in stages so food and molts remain observable.

Quarantine a new animal for at least 6-8 weeks away from the collection. Keep separate tongs and cups, preserve the exact seller and locality label, and record meals, refusals, fecal spots, molts, posture, mites, and flies. Wild-caught claims or missing documents justify extra caution. Rehouse inside a larger tub with the destination enclosure open, two catch cups ready, and doors closed.

💡 Lighting

No UVB or basking lamp is required. A 10-12-hour cycle of indirect room light is enough. Bright lamps may force the spider deeper into its web and can create a lethal hot upper corner.

If live plants need an LED, use a modest fixture outside the enclosure and measure the temperature at the top retreat. Maintain a shaded route and a genuine dark period. Never expose the enclosure to direct sun or use coloured night bulbs.

🌡 Heating and temperature

Maintain about 21-26°C by day with nights near 20-23°C. These are conservative captive values based on the species’ lowland tropical distribution and successful Avicularia husbandry, not an instruction to reproduce the hottest outdoor month. Tree cavities and silk retreats buffer weather.

Heating the room is safest. Where extra heat is needed, place a thermostatically controlled low-output source outside one side and leave a cooler route. Do not heat from below or cover ventilation with a pad. Measure at web height. Sustained temperatures over 28°C accelerate dehydration and become especially dangerous in a small acrylic enclosure.

💧 Humidity and water

Provide reliable water and a humid reserve without stagnant saturation. Instrument readings around 65-80% may be observed, but ventilation, retreat condition, and access to water are better guides than a single percentage. Keep the lower layer lightly moist in one corner while allowing the exposed surface and upper web to dry after watering.

Refill a shallow dish and overflow it modestly. In a dry room, add droplets to foliage or part of the web in the evening once or twice weekly, never spray the spider or soak its silk tube. A spiderling container needs smaller, more frequent checks rather than a flooded substrate.

Persistent condensation, wet walls all day, mold, and sour odour indicate too much water or too little air exchange. A shrivelled abdomen and repeated drinking indicate dehydration. Correct heat, ventilation, and water access before making abrupt whole-enclosure changes.

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Use clean unfertilized topsoil, coco fibre, or a soil-coco blend that absorbs overflow without becoming swampy. Five to eight centimetres is normally enough because this is not a burrower, although planted enclosures may use more. Avoid fertilizer, pesticide residues, cedar or aromatic wood, sharp metal, and loose snagging fibres.

Secure bark and branches so they cannot shift when the door opens. Cork, broad artificial leaves, and fine twigs provide web anchors; an empty glass column does not. Keep a clear working channel for water-dish access and catch-cup placement. Avoid mesh surfaces that can trap claws.

Remove prey remains and wipe accessible fecal spots without dismantling the retreat. Replace all substrate only for contamination, pest persistence, or rehousing. If the spider seals itself in, leave the web intact and assume premolt until its behaviour shows otherwise.

🪳 Feeding

Use captive-reared roaches, crickets, or locusts where permitted. Select prey no longer than the abdomen. Tiny slings can take flightless fruit flies, pinheads, or freshly killed pieces twice weekly; juveniles generally eat every 5-7 days; adults often need one suitable item every 7-14 days. A mature well-fed female may refuse for much longer without being ill.

Offer prey near the lower edge of the web after dark. Remove it within 24 hours if not captured. Do not tear open a retreat or drop feeders into a sealed tube. Stop feeding during repeated refusal, darkening, or closure of the entrance.

After a molt, wait for black fangs and a firm body—several days for juveniles and generally 7-10 days for adults. Overfeeding enlarges the abdomen and makes a fall more dangerous. Vitamin and calcium dusts are unnecessary; feeder health and suitable size are what matter.

🩺 Common problems

• Poor cross-ventilation combined with wet webbing can produce rapid decline.
• Chronic dryness, high heat, or an empty dish can lead to a wrinkled abdomen and weak posture.
• Refusal and a sealed tube normally indicate premolt; disturbance can cause a fatal failed molt.
• Mold, phorid flies, and mites thrive around retained prey remains and wet waste.
• Persistent wandering may indicate missing web anchors, an overheated top, excessive dampness, or repeated disturbance.
• Falls, leaking hemolymph, severe loss of coordination, eye exposure, and a clearly arrested molt require advice from an exotics veterinarian experienced with arachnids.

Do not use domestic parasite treatments, insecticides, essential oils, or cleaning fumes in the spider room.

📌 Conclusion

Avicularia purpurea is most suitable for an intermediate keeper who can provide a sheltered vertical retreat without sacrificing airflow. The purple sheen is the attraction, but enclosure design is the decisive issue: water and local moisture must coexist with drying surfaces, cross-ventilation, and a safe rehousing plan.

📚 Sources and further reading

• World Spider Catalog: Avicularia purpurea — accepted taxonomy and distribution, checked 2026-08-06
• Fukushima & Bertani 2017 Avicularia revision — examined range, variation, and natural history
• GBIF: Avicularia purpurea — taxonomy and occurrence context
• Tom’s Big Spiders: Avicularia husbandry notes — comparative genus-level ventilation, water, web, and molt practice
• Royal Veterinary College tarantula care factsheet — general veterinary husbandry and safety context
• CITES Appendices and EU wildlife-trade annexes, Regulation (EU) 2026/1383 — official legal sources checked 2026-08-06
• MedlinePlus: tarantula bites and hair exposure
• Kaderka et al. (2019): urticating setae in tarantulas
• Waggoner et al. (1997): eye injury from tarantula hairs