MEXICO CITY -- Fancy a tarantula taco for a cool $27? Not so fast, Mexican authorities say.
A Mexico City market restaurant recently put the arachnids on its menu and posted a video on Facebook showing a chef torching one until blackened.
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The only problem: The Mexican red rump tarantula is a protected species.
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The federal environmental protection agency said Tuesday it was alerted to the situation via social media and seized four tarantula corpses that were ready to be served up on tortillas.
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The tarantula tacos were apparently on offer for 500 pesos, or 50 times the price of a basic street taco.
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The restaurant's menu also features other creepy-crawlies such as grasshoppers, worms and ant eggs, which have a long tradition in Mexican cuisine, and scorpions, which are less common.