Poisonous Animals of thh; Deskrt 



381 



writer's own experience in occasionally catching spiders is that 

 they do not. Professor Comstock reports that in years of study of 

 spiders, involving the handling of very many live specimens, he has 

 never been bitten. Others bear out this evidence with personal 

 experience, and emphasize also the lack of power to do damage 

 by reason both of the small size of the jaws and the inconsiderable 

 effect of the poison itself. Dr. Riley says, "Some years ago the 

 senior author (himself) personally experimented with a number of 

 the largest of our northern species, and with unexpected results. 

 The first surprise was that the spiders were very unwilling to bite 

 and that it required a considerable eft'ort to get them to attempt 

 to do so. In the second place, most of those experimented with 

 were unable to pierce the skin of the palm of the hand, but had to 

 be applied to the thin skin between the fingers before they were, 

 able to draw blood * * * In no case was the bite more severe 

 than a pin prick and though in some cases the sensation seemed 

 to last longer, it was probably due to the fact that the mind was 

 intent upon the experiment." Other men have experimented with 

 similar results. Certainly we must conclude that the ordinary 

 spider is anything but dangerous. 



Certain exceptions to the above general rule cannot be disposed 

 of quite so readily, particularly in the southwestern area of which 



Arizona is the 

 center. These 

 e X c e ptions 

 are the many 

 and various 

 large hairy 

 spiders dub- 

 bed tarantu- 

 las at sight, 

 and a certain 

 small black 

 species found 

 'in the South' 

 and hence 

 d o u bt 1 e 3 s 

 within our 

 borders. 



Tarantulas are among the most dreaded of all spiders by the 

 average person. Let us emphasize just here the spelling and pro- 



Fi: 



6. — Crab-spider. 



I'liotosrapli froiM life, natural size. 



