Tarantulas. 145 



touched, and cause a peculiar and almost maddening 

 irritation. The first specimen that I killed and 

 prepared was handled incautiously, and I suffered 

 terribly for three days afterwards. I think this is 

 not owing to any poisonous quality residing in the 

 hairs, but to their being short and hard, and thus 

 getting into the creases of the skin." After this 

 description it is curious to find that the Indian 

 children make pets of these creatures. Yet Mr. 

 Bates relates that one day he saw some Indian 

 children " with one of these monsters secured by a 

 cord round its waist, by which they were leading it 

 about the house as they would a dog/ 5 



In confinement these tarantulas are fed princi- 

 pally on cockroaches and meal-worms. The speci- 

 men now in the Zoo is a large and sufficiently 

 terrible-looking spider, though it is, we believe, by 

 no means full grown. It is of a deep glossy black, 

 with the exception of its abdomen, the longer hairs 

 on which are a rich orange red ; it keeps itself 

 concealed during the day, for which purpose it is 

 supplied with two small flower-pots and a quantity 

 of moss, but if disturbed, it shows considerable 

 activity and every desire to attack the intruder on 

 its privacy. 



Like the Mygalidae, the Lycosidae or wolf-spiders, 

 to which family the Deserta tarantula belongs, have 

 a very wide range, and the different species vary 

 much in size, though none of them are so large as 

 the larger members of the former family. Still 

 many of them, especially those inhabiting the 



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