The Life of a Spider 



Those Spiders might easily deserve, at least 

 partly, their terrible reputation. 



The most powerful Spider in my district, the 

 Black-bellied Tarantula, will presently give us 

 something to think about, in this connection. 

 It is not my business to discuss a medical point, 

 I interest myself especially in matters of instinct; 

 but, as the poison-fangs play a leading part in 

 the huntress' manoeuvres of war, I shall speak 

 of their effects by the way. The habits of 

 the Tarantula, her ambushes, her artifices, her 

 methods of killing her prey : these constitute 

 my subject. I will preface it with an account 

 by Leon Dufour,^ one of those accounts in 

 which I used to delight and which did much 

 to bring me into closer touch with the insect. 

 The Wizard of the Landes tells us of the ordinary 

 Tarantula, that of the Calabrias, observed by 

 him in Spain : 



' Lycosa tarantula by preference inhabits open 

 places, dry, arid, uncultivated places, exposed 



^ L^on Dufour (1780-1865) was an army surgeon who served 

 with distinction in several campaigns and subsequently practised 

 as a doctor in the Landes. He attained great eminence as a 

 naturalist. — Translator's Note. 



