20 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAl, ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



old farmer, "Those cursed little beasts almost killed 

 me last year. I was out cutting some timber for 

 fence posts. Before I knew it, they were all over 

 me in such numbers that I soon came down with a 

 high fever. My legs were so covered with sores 

 that it was nearly 3 months before I could walk 

 well; and now (showing large discolored scars) 

 look at these !" "It is terrible to have to bring in a 

 horse," said a farm boy, "from a pasture full of 

 ticks. You soon begin to itch something awful. 

 You hardly sleep all that night because of those 

 infernal little beasts. They don't kill, but they 

 certainly do make life miserable for a person." 

 The local remedy is pmffa in which tobacco has 

 been soaked, applied to the affected parts. For 

 animals, garlic is put in the feed. The ticks also 

 are combed out of the hair and tobacco and garlic 

 rubbed over the animal's body. No farmer has 

 equipment for dipping. 



There are several kinds of spiders to be found 

 in the community, all of which are nonpoisonous 

 except the caranguejeira {Grammostola) . It is a 

 black, hairy spider and frequents dark places 

 where there is little sunlight. Ordinarilj^ it moves 

 very slowly ; at moments of attack or defense, how- 

 ever, it is quick and agile. There are two species. 

 One is large and measures over 3 inches from the 

 tip of the front feet to the tip of the hind feet. 

 The other is smaller, approximately an inch long. 



The caranguejeira is a serious pest. Care must 

 be taken, for instance, when putting on shoes in 

 the morning to make certain that this spider lias 

 not crept into them during the niglit or, as a 

 villager said, "You will get bitten and you'll go 

 hopping around on one foot for the next 24 hours 

 hollering continuously with the pain." Cats 

 occasionally die from being bitten by this spider, 

 or from incautiously having eaten one. 



The local inhabitants use two terms to refer to 

 the various spiders they know: the tecedeira, or 

 "web-weaver," which lives only in the timber or 

 brush; and the caseira, or "house dweller," of 

 which the carangiiejeira is only one kind. The 

 other "house dwellers" are called oncmha ("little 

 onQcD^) or cagadeira ("huntress"), perna-pna ("fine 

 legged") or de forro ("of the ceiling") and aranha 

 de parede ("wall spider"). The oncinha or caga- 

 deira, is small, seldom reaching over half a centi- 

 meter in length, and light gray in color. It is to 

 be seen around doors and M'indows on sunny days. 



It stalks its prey until quite close when, with a 

 sudden leap, it pounces upon it, whence the com- 

 mon name for this spider. The "wall spider" has 

 a rather flat, dark-gi'ay body from which its feet 

 spread out in a circle up to an inch and a half in 

 diameter. It hides in the interstices of doors, 

 behind picture frames or other objects hanging 

 on the wall. Its hunting is ordinarily done at 

 night by artificial light. The perna-fina is a small 

 light-gray spider, with a round body about a 

 centimeter across and long, extremely slender legs 

 four to five times the length of the body. It 

 spins a net to catch the mosqviitoes and small moths 

 which are its principal food supply. 



A serious crop pest is the ant. The most destruc- 

 tive species is the sauva {Atta sexdens). The adult 

 is about three-fourths of an inch long and has 

 sharp mandibles. In a single night, these ants 

 can strip and carry away an unbelievable amoimt 

 of green leaves from a garden or field, sometimes 

 completely destroying a newly sprouted crop. 

 Only those plants which exude a milky or aqueous 

 substance, like papaya and banana trees, are im- 

 mune to attack. So serious is tlie destruction 

 caused by this insect that one commonly hears it 

 said, "<9m o Brasil acaba com a sauva ou a sauva 

 acaba com o BrasiV (Either Brazil gets rid of the 

 sauva or it will get rid of Brazil) . Although this 

 is obviously an overstatement, the threat it em- 

 phasizes is none the less serious and real. Local 

 inhabitants call the sauva, "the farmer's worst 

 enemy." 



Sometime in September or October, the young 

 female sauvas, called locally igds, heavy with eggs, 

 grow wings, come out of their nests and begin to 

 fly. After being in the air for some 10 to 15 min- 

 utes, they settle again. A large proportion die; 

 but other igd, having landed on cleared and (even 

 more fortunately) cultivated land, are able to dig 

 a cavity, known as the panelinha, into which they 

 subsequently deposit their eggs. The new larvae 

 when hatched will enlarge and extend this nest 

 into a forviigueiro, or ant hill, of loose dirt, the 

 base of which sometimes reaches 15 feet in 

 diameter. 



The lava-pes ant {Solenopsis saevissima) is a 

 serious threat to onions and peanuts. It attacks 

 the seed in the ground. Wlien attacking animals, 

 it has a sharp and painful bite, as also does the 

 sard {Camponotus rwfipes). 



