146 Tarantulas. 



warmer parts of the world, attain a very con- 

 siderable size, as indeed may be seen by anyone 

 visiting the Zoo at the present time. They differ 

 from the Mygalidse, however, not only in size but 

 also in general appearance ; as, for example a 

 point which will strike the least observant they 

 are by comparison hairless and, indeed, generally 

 more spider-like, though, be it observed, they are 

 by no means destitute of hair. They are wandering, 

 preying spiders capable of running with consider- 

 able swiftness, and, like the Mygalidae, many of 

 them are nocturnal in their habits, wandering 

 about after dark in pursuit of the insects on which 

 they feed. They live in holes, under stones, and 

 in crevices in rocks or walls, and some species are 

 fond of the water, on which they run in pursuit of 

 insects. 



The most famous of all the wolf-spiders is the 

 tarantula of Southern Europe, Lycosa tarantula, 

 about which most extraordinary stories were told 

 by the older writers, many of which still cling to 

 every spider that can be called a tarantula, thus 

 causing the unfortunate animals to bear a worse 

 name than even they deserve. As a fact, the bite 

 of the tarantula is painful, but not dangerous ; yet 

 it was fully believed to be the cause of a sort of 

 hysterical dancing mania which appeared in an 

 epidemic form in Italy in the fourteenth century, 

 and spread all over the country, reaching its 

 height in the seventeenth century, after which it 

 gradually faded away. The following extract from 



