SPIDER, 467 



pleasure ; and if it should draw from all the foramina at once, the 

 thread might consist of many hundred distinct filaments. The 

 eyes, which are situated on the upper part or front of the thorax, 

 are eight in number, placed at a small distance from each other, 

 and having the appearance of the stemmata in the generality of 

 insects. The fangs or piercers, with which the animal wounds 

 its prey, are strong, curved, sharp-pointed, and each furnished on 

 the inside, near the tip, with a small oblong hole or slit, through 

 which is evacuated a poisonous fluid into the wound made by the 

 point itself, these organs operating in miniature on the same prin- 

 ciple with the fangs in poisonous serpents. The feet are of a 

 highly curious structure ; the two claws with which each is termi- 

 nated being furnished on its under side with several parallel pro- 

 cesses, resembling the teeth of a comb, and enabling the animal 

 to dispose and manage, with the utmost facility, the disposition of 

 the threads in its web, &c. 



Aranea Tarantula^ or Tarantula Spider, of which so many- 

 idle recitals have been detailed in the works of the learned ; and 

 which even to this day continues, in some countries, to exercise 

 the faith and ignorance of the vulgar, is a native of the warmer 

 parts of Italy, and other warm European regions, and is generally 

 found in dry and sunny plains. It is the largest of all the European 

 spiders, and is of a brown colour, with the back of the abdomen 

 marked by a row of trigonal black spots with whitish edges, and 

 the legs marked beneath by black and white bars. In the present 

 illuminated period it may be sufficient to observe, that the extraor- 

 dinary symptoms supposed to ensue from the bite of this insect, as 

 well as their supposed cure by the power of music alone, are entirely- 

 fabulous, and are now sufficiently exploded among all rational, 

 philosophers. 



Aranea nobilis is a very beautiful species, of middling size, with 

 an orange-coloured thorax, marked by six black spots, and an 

 oval yellow abdomen, with seven oval black spots, the first of which 

 is situated immediately behind the thorax, while the remainder are 

 disposed into two longitudinal rows ; the legs are yellow, with the 

 last joints black. This elegant spider is a native of Samaria. 



Aranea scenica is a small species, by no means uncommon 

 during the summer months, and generally seen on walls in gar- 

 dens, &c. it is of a black colour, with the abdomen marked on 

 2 a 2 



