Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1891 — Tarantulas. [ARTICLE]

Tarantulas.

The tarantula is found in the Old World as well as in the new. It belongs to the hot, dry, sandy plains of Arizona, and to all similar lands in every part oi the world A writer in Knowledge who has evidently made a specialty of spiders, gossips p.easautly of this most repulsive species: "The taraut.ila is one of the largest but by no means the most venomous, spider found in Europe. It belongs to the mining section of the family termed wolf spiders. Arts body is covered a.l over with down, chiefly of an olive dusky brown color. The upper border Ot the thorax and the outline of the eyes are yellow and the back of the abdomen is marked with a row of triangular dark spots with whitish edges. lis eight eyes are arranged in three tranve se rows, the front row containing four small eves; while behind there a.e tvyo pairs of larger eyes., The tarantula is common in Spain, Southern Fiance*and Italy, occurring lin great numbers round the town of ! Taranto. It has been found in Asia, I and also in .-Northern Africa. This spider is to be found in dry places, partly overgrown with grass and fully exposed to the heat of the sun; living in an underground passage which it digs for itself, lining it with its web. These passages are round in section, and sometime * quite an inch in diameter, often extending toHlSg:~fleptfr3of £ a foot or even* more below the surface. The creature is very quick in its movements, and eager in the pursuit of its prey It waits oniy to kill one victim before it darts upon another, and it has been known to affo'w itsetf to be carried into the air by a large fl v that it has attacked rather than relinquish its hold. I would not write silly letters to young men, or permit them to be familiar with me.