The Tarantulas n 



pion. However, there seems to be no doubt that most of the accounts 

 refer to the spider known as Lycosa tarantula. 



There is no need to enter into further details here regarding the 

 supposed virulence of these forms, popular and the older medical 

 literature abound in circumstantial accounts of the terrible effects of 

 the bite. Fortunately, there is direct experimental evidence which 

 bears on the question. 



Fabre induced a common south European wolf-spider, Lycosa 

 narbonensis, to bite the leg of a young sparrow, ready to leave the 

 nest. The leg seemed paralyzed as a result of the bite, and though 

 the bird seemed lively and clamored for food the next day, on the 

 third day it died. A mole, bitten on the nose, succumbed after thirty- 

 six hours. From these experiments Fabre seemed justified in his 

 conclusion that the bite of this spider is not an accident which man 

 can afford to treat lightly. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the 

 experiments, or in the symptoms detailed, to exclude the probability 

 that the death of the animals was the result of secondary infection. 



As far back as 1693, as we learn from the valuable account of 

 Robert, (1901), the Italian physician, Sanguinetti allowed himself to 

 be bitten on the arm by two tarantulas, in the presence of witnesses. 

 The sensation was equivalent to that from an ant or a mosquito bite 

 and there were no other phenomena the first day. On the second day 

 the wound was inflamed and there was slight ulceration. It is clear 

 that these later symptoms were due to a secondary infection. These 

 experiments have been repeated by various observers, among whom 

 may be mentioned Leon Dufour, Josef Erker and Heinzel, and with 

 the similar conclusion that the bite of the Italian tarantula ordinarily 

 causes no severe symptoms. In this conclusion, Kobert, though 

 firmly convinced of the poisonous nature of some spiders, coincides. 

 He also believes that striking symptoms may be simulated or arti- 

 ficially induced by patients in order to attract interest, or because 

 they have been assured that the bite, under all circumstances, caused 

 tarantism. 



The so-called Russian tarantula, Trochosa singoriensis (fig. 7), is 

 much larger than the Italian species, and is much feared. Kobert 

 carried out a series of careful experiments with this species and his 

 results have such an important bearing on the question of the venom- 

 ous nature of the tarantula that we quote his summary. Experi- 

 menting first on nearly a hundred living specimens of Trochosa 

 singoriensis from Crimea he says that: 



