 A popular urban legend maintains that deadly varieties of tarantula exist somewhere in South America.This claim is often made without identifying a particular spider, although the "banana tarantula" is sometimes named.A likely candidate for the true identity of this spider is the dangerous Brazilian wandering spider ("Phoneutria fera") of the family Ctenidae, as it is sometimes found hiding in clusters of bananas and is one of several spiders called "banana spiders".