The Black-Bellied Tarantula 15 



Landes ; but it possesses an equivalent in the 

 shape of the Black-bellied Tarantula, or Nar- 

 bonne Lycosa, half the size of the other, clad 

 in black velvet on the lower surface, especially 

 under the belly, with brown chevrons on the 

 abdomen and grey and white rings around the 

 legs. Her favourite home is the dry, pebbly 

 ground, covered with sun-scorched thyme. In 

 my harmas ^ laboratory there are quite twenty 

 of this Spider's burrows. Rarely do I pass by 

 one of these haunts without giving a glance 

 down the pit where gleam, like diamonds, the 

 four great eyes, the four telescopes, of the 

 hermit. The four others, which are much 

 smaller, are not visible at that depth. 



Would I have greater riches, I have but to 

 walk a hundred yards from my house, on the 

 neighbouring plateau, once a shady forest, to- 

 day a dreary solitude where the Cricket browses 

 and the Wheat-ear flits from stone to stone. 

 The love of lucre has laid waste the land. 

 Because wine paid handsomely, they pulled 

 up the forest to plant the vine. Then came 



^ Provengal for the bit of waste ground on which the author 

 studies his insects in the natural state. — Translator's Note. 



