TARANTULA, strictly speaking, a large spider (Lycosa
tarantula), which takes its name from the town of Taranto
(Tarentum) in Apulia, near which it occurs and where it was
Galeodes lucasii, an Arachnid of the order
Solifugae, commonly but wrongly called
tarantula in Egypt.
formerly believed to
be the cause of the
malady known as
“tarantism.” This
spider belongs to the
family Lycosidae, and
has numerous allies,
equalling or surpassing
it in size, in various
parts of the world,
the genus Lycosa being
almost cosmopolitan
in distribution. The
tarantula, like all its
allies, spins no web as
a snare but catches
its prey by activity
and speed of foot. It
lives on dry,
well-drained ground, and
digs a deep burrow
lined with silk to
prevent the infall of
loose particles of soil.
In the winter it
covers the orifice of
this burrow with a layer of silk, and lies dormant underground
until the return of spring. It also uses the burrow as a safe
retreat during moulting and guards its cocoon and young in
its depths. It lives for several years. The male is approximately
the same size as the female, but in neither sex does
the length of the body surpass three-quarters of an inch. Like
all spiders, the tarantula possesses poison glands in its jaws,
but there is not a particle of trustworthy evidence that the
secretion of these glands is more virulent than that of other
spiders of the same size, and the medieval belief that the bite
of the spider gave rise to tarantism has long been abandoned.
According to traditional accounts the first symptom of this
disorder was usually a state of depression and lethargy. From
this the sufferer could only be roused by music, which excited
an overpowering desire to dance until the performer fell to
the ground bathed in profuse perspiration, when the cure, at
all events for the time, was supposed to be effected. This
mania attacked both men and women, young and old alike,
women being more susceptible than men. It was also considered
to be highly infectious and to spread rapidly from
person to person until whole areas were affected. The name
tarantella, in use at the present time, applies both to a dance
still in vogue in Southern Italy and also to musical pieces
resembling in their stimulating measures those that were
necessary to rouse to activity the sufferer from tarantism in
the middle ages. In recent times the term tarantula has been
applied indiscriminately to many different kinds of large spiders
in no way related to Lycosa tarantula; and to at least one
Arachnid belonging to a distinct order. In most parts of
America, for example, where English is spoken, species of
Aviculariidae, or “Bird-eating” spiders of various genera, are
invariably called tarantulas. These spiders are very much
larger and more venomous than the largest of the Lycosidae,
and in the Southern states of North America the species of
wasps that destroy them have been called tarantula hawks.
In Queensland one of the largest local spiders, known as
Holconia immanis, a member of the family Clubionidae, bears
the name tarantula; and in Egypt it was a common practice
of the British soldiers to put together scorpions and tarantulas,
the latter in this instance being specimens of the large and
formidable desert-haunting Arachnid, Galeodes lucasii, a member
of the order Solifugae. Similarly in South Africa species of
the genus Solpuga, another member of the Solifugae, were employed
for the same purpose under the name tarantula. Finally
the name Tarantula, in a scientific and systematic sense, was
first given by Fabricius to a Ceylonese species of amblypygous
Pedipalpi, still sometimes quoted as Phrynus lunatus. (R. I. P.)
