To settle a dispute, please give a description of the tarantula, and tell where it is found.
A Reader.
Answer.—There are several varieties of tarantulas. The one from which they all take this name, the “lycosa tarantula,” is the largest of European spiders, named from Taranto, Italy, where they are very numerous. Its body is from one and a half to two inches long, ashy brown above, thorax marked with gray and abdomen with three-cornered spots and curved streaks bordered with white, with a patch of saffron-color below all, crossed by a black band. It has one spiracle, or breathing aperture, on each side, one pulmonary sac, and eight eyes. It does not spin a web to snare its prey, but captures it by running it down, and it lives in holes lined with a silk-like substance. Its bite is no more severe than that of some kinds of wasps, and is certainly not nearly so dangerous to life as it is fabled to be. The notion that its bite produced a sort of delirium and was curable only by dancing to lively music until the sufferer fell from sheer exhaustion was a superstition. For a good illustration of this ugly insect see the cut accompanying the word “tarantula” in Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.
There is a variety of tarantula in our Southern States, called “lycosa Carolinensis” by naturalists, which is even larger than its European namesake, being about two inches long, and having legs spreading at least four inches. It has whitish legs, white sides, whitish dots and lines on the belly, and is of a mouse color on top and black or dark colored underneath. Like the Italian tarantula, it spins no web, takes its prey by pursuit, and lives in holes lined with a sort of silk. It is peculiar in carrying its young on its back, and it seldom bites.
There are certain spiders of the genus mygale in the Southwestern States, which are sometimes improperly called tarantulas.
PERRY’S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE.
Evanston, Ill.
Can you give us the old American naval song of 1812, in which perry, pear cider, is made to pun with the name of Perry, the hero of Lake Erie.
A Reader.