382 



BULI^UTIN 83 



nunciation of the word, ta-ran-tii-hi. The word is often senselessly 

 corrupted to "triantler." The term tarantula was originally given 

 to a European spider, the bite of which was supposed to produce 

 tarantism, a form of hysteria. This hysteria, once started, often 

 became contagious, but was purely a nervous disease. There is no 

 evidence that the bite of a spider was responsible for even the first 

 case of a given outbreak. The tarantulas of the Southwest belong 

 to a family of spiders entirely diilerent from this European form, 

 and the name, moreover, applies to trap-door spiders as well, which 

 belong to this family. Several kinds of rather large, long-legged, 

 somewhat hairy spiders which run swiftly are also often called 

 tarantulas, and are supposed by many to be the young. This is 

 likewise true of the crab-spiders (Fig. 6) which are represented in 

 our fauna. 



One of the crab-spiders is often found in bunches of bananas, 

 and is an object of fear, but true tarantulas are much less often 

 found in this situation. This banana spider is quite harmless, as are 

 other crab-spiders probably, a personal friend of the writer's having 

 captured many with his bare hands without ever being bitten. One 

 of these crab-spiders has been received from Nogales labeled "white 

 tarantula," indicating 

 that it may be account- 

 ed dangerous. While 

 most tarantula species 

 are dark or black in 

 coloration, this "white 

 tarantula" and many 

 other crab-spiders are 

 gray, or of very light 

 color. 



Tarantulas (Fig. 7), 

 like other spiders, have 

 poison jaws for killing 

 or paralyzing t h e i r 

 prey, and their formid- 

 able size would indi- 

 cate that if their poison 

 be at all virulent, a bite might produce marked effects on a huma!i 

 being. Even on this point there is no experimental evidence what- 

 ever regarding American species, but the poison from a single indi- 

 vidual of a species from Haiti has been found sufficient to kill ten 



Fig. 



A tarantula. From a dried .specimen, 

 slightly reduced. 



