THE 
AMERICAN TARANTULA. 
Generic Character . 
Legs eight. 
Eyes eight. 
Mouth furnished with two hooks or holders. 
Palpi or Feelers two, the tips of which (in the 
males) distinguish the sex. 
Abdomen terminated by papillae or teats thro’ 
which the insect draws its thread. 
Specific Character, &c . 
CHESNUT SPIDER, with smooth thorax, and 
brown pubescent body. 
BLACK TARANTULA. Browns Jamaica. 
AMERICAN TARANTULA. 
The Aranea venatoria inhabits Jamaica, and other 
American islands : it construes in dry and sandy 
situations a cylindrical nest of five or six inches in 
length, furnished with an elastic closing valve. In 
this nest the animal waits the arrival of its prey, 
viz. any insedt flying or creeping near; and sudden¬ 
ly rushing out, secures its victim, which it drags 
into the nest, and devours at leisure, the valve im¬ 
mediately closing behind it. In the annexed plate 
the spider itself is represented in its natural size ; 
the nest of half its real dimensions. 
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