Superfamily Argiopoidea 



The belief in the venomous nature of the bite of this species 

 is very widespread. An intelligent negro, who saw me collect- 

 ing the spider in Mississippi, told me that its bite is poisonous. 

 And Dr. C. Mart Merriam in his volume, The Dawn of the World, 

 Myths and Weird Tales told by the Mewan Indians of California, 

 (*io) states that the Northern Mevvuk say " Po'ko-moo the small 

 black spider with a red spot under his belly is poison. Sometimes 

 he scratches people with his long fingers, and the scratch makes 

 a bad sore." Doctor Merriam adds, "All the tribes know that 

 the spider is poisonous and some of them make use of the 

 poison." 



In a letter received from Doctor Merriam he makes the follow- 

 ing statement: "Whenever I have questioned Indians about it 

 (this spider) in California they uniformly rank it with the rattle- 

 snake as poison. To poison their arrows they mash the spider 

 and rub the points of the arrows in it. Sometimes this is the only 

 poison used; at other times it is one of the several things used to 

 make the poison." 



Much of the evidence for and against the venomous nature 

 of the bite of Latrodectus has been brought together by Riley and 

 Howard in Insect Life (Vol. I, p. 204-211, Jan. 1889); and in a 

 later number of the same volume (p. 280), Dr. E. R. Corson gives 

 an account of several cases in his practice in each of which the 

 patient, who suffered greatly, was supposed to have been bitten 

 by a spider. But in none of the cases was the spider seen except 

 in one; and in that case the specimen was lost, and consequently 

 was not determined. 



Latrodectus geometricus (L. ge-o-met'ri-cus). — This is a 

 gray species in which the anterior median eyes are distinctly 

 larger than the anterior laterals. It has been found in California. 



Genus CRUSTULINA (Crus-tu-li'na) 



The base of the abdomen in these spiders is furnished with 

 a horny ring around the insertion of the pedicel. The males have 

 stridulating organs. This genus differs from our other genera 

 of the Theridiidae that have stridulating organs in having the 

 sternum truncate behind. In our common species the cephalo 

 thorax is conspicuously marked with numerous, small, black, 

 crescent-shaped elevations, each at one side of a puncture. Four 



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