The following text is an excerpt from the official Beast Wars Story Bible, written by Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio. It's from a draft of Dec. 1995, before the first show aired...

Name: TARANTULAS, Infiltrator, Spy

Beast Form: Giant Tarantula

Robotic Form: Orange, Purple, Black Humanoid

Weaponry: Four Missile Launchers (Shoulder mounted), Grappling Hook (Hand held), Energy Web (Back Mounted), Pincer Claws.

Skills: Stealth, Cunning, Melee Combat, InfraVision (he can see in the dark), Ambush, Sixth Sense

Interests/Hobbies: Food! Anything Tarantulas can eat he likes. He is kind of a demented gourmand.

Attitude: Tarantulas is easily the creepiest of the Predacons. He makes even his own teammates nervous. He doesn't talk much but he frequently chuckles to himself in a way that makes one's skin crawl. In essence, he is a mystery, a creature of shadows who doesn't let anyone get too close. Unless they have food.

He, like Rattrap, prefers to ambush his enemies and he would dearly love to catch the Rat Maximal in his web one day.

Though a ground creature, Tarantulas can use his grappling hook to strike from above when in appropriate terrain and can use his web to bring flyers to earth.

He is devastating in hand-to-hand combat and no slouch with his ranged bag of tricks either.

He does not care one way or the other who leads the Predacons, but by keeping this to himself he knows he worries the others.

RELATIONSHIPS: Tarantulas has just about the same relationship with all the Predacons. They fear him, they don't trust him and he likes it that way since they are nothing more to him than potential meals.

From Package Tech Specs:
An eight armed master of the martial arts, this ninja night- mare slashes his way through battle virtually unstoppable! The heroic Optimus Primal suspects him of being responsible for the disappearance of numerous earthlings, and recent rumors suggest the existence of giant cocoons where Tarantulas may store his unfortunate prey. He must be stopped before he spins his web of terror across the galaxy!