68 Observations upon the Tarantula. 



nished by the dorsal parts of the abdomen, seems to have 

 had nothing in view but to complete the description of his 

 master Linnaeus, which he quotes, word for word, at the end 

 of his own. We must take particular notice, that these two 

 founders of the science of entomology have said nothing 

 which can lead us to presume the existence in the tarantula 

 of a black stripe upon the abdomen. The species which they 

 have mentioned is, without doubt, that which I have met 

 with in ten places in Spain, and of which I here produce 

 a figure. {Jig. 11.) 



The detailed description of the Aranea Tarentula which 

 Olivier has given in his Encyclopedic Methodique, and which 

 appears to have been taken from specimens he had himself 

 observed in Provence, is adapted, in all points, to the one 

 which is the subject of my paper. It is also the Linnaean 

 species, the fundamental one. 



Latreille had at first (I know not upon what evidence, for 

 he does not cite any authority), advanced, in the Histoire 

 des Araignees, making part of Sonnini's Biiffbn, that the taran- 

 tula of Linnaeus and Fabricius had the lower surface of the 

 abdomen of a clear vermilion, with a black stripe crossing the 

 centre. In his Genera, as well as in the second edition of the 

 Nouvcau Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ; in that of the Regne Animal of 

 Cuvier (1829) ; and, finally, in his Cours d'Entomologie 

 (1831), Latreille has confined his description to the Linnaean 

 species, excluding the synonyme of Olivier. I think I have 

 more than proved that Linnaeus, Fabricius, and Olivier had 

 all three mentioned or described one and the same taran- 

 tula, and that this is, in all respects, similar to the species 

 which is the object of my present essay. Now, I repeat, the 

 abdomen of the tarantula of these authors, and of mine, dis- 

 plays neither any red or saffron colour, nor any stripe across 

 the centre. 



Without disputing the existence of a species of Lycosa 

 which shall be characterised by these last traits, I conclude 

 merely that it is not the tarantula of Linnaeus. I regret 

 very much my not being able to consult the recent figure in 

 the Iconographie du Regne Animal, cited by Latreille, in his 

 course of entomology, with reference to the species.* 



* I met with a species of Lycosa, in December, 1831, under the stones 

 on the barren mountains of Murviedro, in Valencia, which I find thus 

 described in my notes : — " Lycosa fascii-ventris Nob. — Cinereo-grisea, 

 abdominis dorso maculis triangularibus nigris coadunatis ; ventre ochraceo 

 fascia in medio transversa atra lateribus unidentata. This species is smaller 

 than the true tarantula, which it very much resembles. However, 1 have 



