AETHEOPOD FAUNA OF THE WEST INDIES. 529 



Family Tabantulid^, Karsch. 



Subfam. Tarantulin^, Simon. 

 G-enus Tarantula *, Fair. 



Tarantula, Fabricius, Ent. Syst. vol. ii. p. 432, 1793, /or Phalangium 

 reniforme of Linnceus. 



Phrynus, Lamarck, Syst. An. p, 1/5 (1801); Latreille, Hist. Nat. 

 Crust. Ins.nl p. 48 (1802). 



Admetus, C. Koch, UebersicJit des Arachnidensy stems, pt. v. p. 81. 



Tarantula barbadensis, sp. n. (PI. XL. fig. 1.) 

 Colour : carapace and clielse cliestnut-red ; the former witli 

 postero-lateral border flavous ; abdomen ochraceous, with scarcely 

 a trace of a pattern; legs fusco-ocbraceous, paler than the 

 chelae, witb very faintly defined flavous spots on the femora. 



Carapace not coarsely granular, its frontal border widely 

 emarginate, evenly denticulate, and not overlapping the base of 

 the vertical median triangular process, which is easily visible 

 throughout its length from above and has its apex not turned 

 forwards ; median ocular tubercle transverse, separated from the 

 front border by a space which is less tban its longitudinal 

 diameter ; distance between tbe lateral eyes equal to about two- 

 thirds tbe median length of tbe carapace and equal to the length 

 of the upperside of the femur of the chela ; the lateral eyes a 



* Readers of this paper, who are unfamiliar witb the problems of zoological 

 nomenclature, must be warned that in a systematic zoological sense Tarantula 

 is not a spider. 



In the vulgar tongue the term Tarantula is indiscriminately applied to 

 any large formidable-looking animal of the spider kind. Tbe original 

 Tarantula is of course one of the Italian hunting-spiders, or Lycosidee. But 

 our friends in the United States have transferred the name to one of their so- 

 called Mygalidffi. I have even heard a Galeodes thus nicknamed, and I am 

 told that the Tarantula of the Queensland settlers is tbe spider named Holconia 

 immanis, one of tbe Sparassidte. But in a zoological sense tbe Tarantula is not 

 a spider at all, but one of tbe so-called Pedipalps. 



Tbe term appeai-s to have been first used in zoological nomenclature to 

 designate a definite genus by Fabricius in 1793 ; and this author was perfectly 

 within his rights in applying the term to those animals which were subsequently 

 called Phrynus. Dr. Thorell, it appears, would like still to preserve the name 

 Thrynus instead of Tarantula, and I confess that lie has my full sympathy in 

 so wisliing. But I can find no logical grounds to justify the change ; and 

 however much one may regret Fabricius's choice of the name, no one, it appears 

 to me, has the right to revoke his decision. 



