Heteroscodra maculata, the Togo starburst tarantula, is a tree-dwelling tarantula from West and Central Africa. R. I. Pocock described it in 1900. It is one of two species in Heteroscodra; the other is H. crassipes, described by Hirst in 1907.
Two African tree tarantulas compared
A comparison of two West African tree tarantulas, Heteroscodra maculata and Stromatopelma calceatum. Captive footage.
The video calls both extremely defensive and fast, and recommends them only to advanced keepers.
How these African tree tarantulas compare with New World ones: Old World vs New World Tarantulas.
Names and range
The World Spider Catalog accepts Heteroscodra maculata Pocock, 1900 as the type species of its genus and gives its distribution as West and Central Africa. Pocock described it in a paper on the scorpions, pedipalps and spiders of tropical West Africa. Charpentier described the male in 1992.
Stromatopelma calceatum (Fabricius, 1793) is the type species of Stromatopelma. The catalog lists it from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Cameroon.
Sources
- World Spider Catalog (2026). Heteroscodra maculata and Stromatopelma calceatum, accessed 1 October 2026.
- Pocock, R. I. (1900). On the scorpions, pedipalps and spiders from tropical West-Africa, represented in the collection of the British Museum. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 67(4): 833-885.
- Charpentier, P. (1992). Heteroscodra maculata. Journal of the British Tarantula Society 8(2): 11-19.
