404 



HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



man was two months in recovering sufficiently to return 

 to work. E. R. Corson also furnishes, in Vol. 1 of Insect 

 Life, several cases in which the evidence points strongly 

 toward the hour-glass spider as one capable of seriously 

 poisoning human beings. 



There is also in southern Europe a spider of the same 

 genus, Latrodeetus 13-guttatus, known as the "Malmi- 



gnatte, " which is also considered 

 extremely poisonous. In this 

 instance, however, Lucas, an 

 eminent authority on spiders, 

 has several times allowed him- 

 self to be bitten by this par- 

 ticular spider without any ill 

 effects. Amid such conflicting 

 evidence it is impossible to say 

 what is the real truth. 



The author feels fairly safe 

 and conservative, however, in 

 saying that the hour-glass spider 

 and the tarantula are the only 

 spiders in the United States 

 that need be feared by man. 

 It seems safe to say that there is not a common spider 

 in this country, outside of the two species just men- 

 tioned, that is capable of causing serious injury to a 

 normally healthy person. It is possible that the bites 

 of some of our larger spiders are capable of causing an 

 irritation equal to a bee-sting to individuals in a weak 

 condition physically, to those suffering from a blood 

 disease, or to persons subject to erysipelas, or susceptible 

 to poison-ivy and other similar affections. 



Fig. 138. — Hour-glass spider, 

 ventral view. (X 4|.) 



