€6 ARACHNOTDEA. 



CASE seen to despatch any insects detained in its toils, though as large 

 as a locust or a cicada, by a bite, which was usually inflicted in 

 the joints between the armour of the head and neck. The insect, 

 if small, died instantaneously; if larger, it appeared at first to 

 undergo something like a convulsion, which presently gave way 

 to a state of total prostration, rapidly terminating in death. 



It may be the same species, or at any rate an allied one, that 

 is referred to by Kirby and Spence in their "Introduction to 

 Entomology," of which they say : According to Mr. Jackson, a 

 spider called there the Tendaraman is found in Morocco, which 

 has formidable but no doubt much exaggerated venomous powers. 

 It is about the size and colour of a hornet, and spins a web so fine 

 as to be almost invisible. Its bite is said to be so poisonous that 

 the person bitten survives but a few hours. In the cork forests 

 the sportsman, eager in his pursuit of game, is said frequently to 

 carry away on his garments this fatal insect. 



The insect is black, with ten blood-red mostly crescent-shaped 

 marks on the abdomen. 



There is an allied species found in Corsica, where it also is 

 known by the same name, or at least a provincial modification of 

 it, viz., Marmignatto or Marmagnatto (Theridion tredecim-gutta- 

 tum). Although it does not there seem to be so formidable as in 

 Catalonia, its bite is said to cause much pain, even to man, and, 

 according to Rossi, induces serious symptoms, which require 

 sharp treatment, copious perspiration being one of the best cures. 

 Grasshoppers and locusts seem to be its favourite food, and it is 

 said to stretch long threads across the furrows in the fields to 

 entangle the feet of its more active prey. When it catches a locust 

 it, like other spiders, secures the insect by spinning threads round its 

 limbs, when it inflicts a fatal wound at the junction of the head with 

 the neck. As soon as the locust has received the bite, it is attacked 

 with a violent convulsion, and dies almost instantaneously. 



This species is black, with thirteen round blood-red spots on 

 the abdomen. 



