Yellow-kneed Skeleton Tarantula

The adult E. murinus usually grows to a leg span of about 11–12 cm (4.5 inches), though females can grow as large as 15 cm (6 inches). The legs are black, the abdomen is small and brown, and the carapace is coffee colored or golden. The leg striping is similar to that of Aphonopelma seemani, but more yellowish in colour.

E. murinus is a terrestrial, semi-fossorial, lowland forest-dwelling species native to northern Brazil, French Guiana, and Suriname.

Unlike most members of the subfamily Aviculariinae, which are arboreal, E. murinus lives mainly on or near the forest floor, where it will build a heavily webbed burrow beneath the topsoil or amongst branches, rocks, and other forest floor debris. As a defense against potential predators, and in common with many other New World tarantulas, the species of the genus Ephebopus will brush urticating hairs from their bodies. Uniquely, rather than being located on the abdomen, Ephebopus urticating hairs are located on the spider's palps - on the medial side of the palpal femora; the spider sheds these hairs by rubbing the palp against the chelicerae. E. murinus is also a fast and aggressive species, and will readily rise up and present its fangs to a potential predator.