Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-11-08


,1KA 81 the water several times as
El>EsT big a. itself and dragged
SIRg. 1t upon the shore. This
W >..H occurrence is vouched for
by the most distinguished
authority on spiders living, having been wit
messed BY himself personally. The fish sue
ceeded in getting back into the water once, but
was pounced upon q second time by the spider,
which had spread of about two inches and
hall, and was pulled out again. to be quickly
dispatched with bites.
mo, the spider did not catch the fish for the
purpose OF eating it. Spiders do not eat the
animals they capture in the sense Of consuming
the tissues. but merely suck the juices. never
heard OF another instance Of spiders making
prey OF a fish, though small mice are often
bounced upon and devoured by spiders. There
Is an implacable enmity between spiders and
mice, perhaps partly for the reason that mice
are very fond Of eating spiders. as are monkeys
and lizards also. So when big spider gets q
chance at one Of his long tailed foes il is good
bye Mr.. Mouse. Snakes have been known to
1aii victims to spiders, and birds very fire.
quentiy. myself once put good-sized taran-
tula IN cage with o rice bird, and the spider
at once leaped upon the feathered creature,
grasping it in its hairy arms and infiicting
bite that proved fatal in exactly seventeen Sec
onds
TAIANTULA BITES.
do think the bite Of a tarantula is poison
Gus enough to cause the death of a human
being? No. 1 am SO sure it is not that am
entirely willing to submit my own person to an
experiment There are all sorts of SUPER
sutlons extant regarding the venomous char
acter OF spider bites, but don't indulge much
faith In any of the widely circulated traditions
on the subject. For example. there is the
famous 'katlpo spider. concerning the danger
GUS Character OF which there exists an aston
ishlngly widespread belief. This is a very shy
black spider that hides under stones and In
other dark places. On its stomach is a big
bright red spot The New Zealanders are SO
AFRAID of the 'katipo,' which is the name they
call 1t by, that they will not camp in any neigh
Dorhood where it is found. They believe that
1t is possessed by an evil spirit. and assert that
human beings are frequently killed by it. The
hl.ghis OF Asia are equally fearful of this
spider, which they call the black widow.
lhey say that whole herds of cattle and many
! cameis are bitten to death by it. By the Cor
sicans the same spider is called the 'malmig-
matte, and they declare that many people are
Killed by it annually. 1t seems astonishing that
THIS particular small spider should be an OBJ
1ect OF such general dread.
UNFoUNDED SUPERSTITION.
II have good reasons for believing that all
the accounts of the destructiveness of this
founded character. There is in this country a
sort OF spider that we call the .lathrodectus,'
which Is SO near the 'katipo' itself as to be to
all lntents and purposes of the same species.
In North Carolina not very long ago a farm
hand was bitter by a lathrodectus and died
that night The case was well authe ntcated.
and so thought recently that 1 would make
some experiments with the lathrodectus, Just
to see how venomous it really was.
Il took rabbit and carefully shaved a por-
ton of its skin clean Of fur. Then 1 made
cut in the skin aud introduced into the wound
the two little poison from the jaws of a
iathrodectus Next delicately cut the poison
sacs open while they were in the wound and
permitted the poison they contained to flow
out, thus lnoculatlng the animal as effectively
as could be. Twelve hours after the operation
the rabbit was ss lively as ever. In short, no
effect worth mentioning was obtained After
ward tried the same experiment with guinea
pig and ~ mouse, with like result. Finally
permitted guinea pig to be bitten three times
by two full-Srown spiders on the nose, but
again there was no perceptible effect The
venom OF the 'katipo' may have deadly quail
lty OF its own, but an willing at any time to
submit my arm to its mandibles.
SPIDER BITES NOT FATAL.
"Mind you, L have no doubt that the 'lathro-
dectus' and the 'katipo' are venomous All
spiders OF whatever sort are so. Their salivary
glands contain poisonous liquid, which is ex-
PEELED IN the act OF biting through little holes
like.t eXtremlties of the mandible or laws
Furthermore, they do undoubtedly kill With their
venom many small animals, even birds. But
that there is any spider that distils a poison
fatal to human life am confident in denying
though knew of one case where o little girl
was thrown into commissions by the bite OF one
OF those fierce jumping spiders that haunt the
sunny sides of walls. This jumping spider is
OF particularly venomous variety aud will
leap at you if you do but point your finger at
him. All spiders are more or less disposed to
be aggressive. If you try to capture one he
will throw himself back upon his hind legs and
prepare to fight
AN INTERESTING STUDY.
Spiders are very interesting study at close
quarters. 1 always have a number of them
alive on hand for breeding other purposes
A while ago Matched out 200 little spiders
from cocOons in a glass receptacle. noticed
that their number steadily diminished from
day to day and at length perceived that they
we're eating each other up. In fact, they con-
tnued this operation until only two were left.
One of these ate the other and 30 found nv
self with only a single female remaining of nv
stock. She was fine specimen, and | reared
her to maturity. Nearly all spiders drink
water freely, and, in fact, are very fond Of it,
but the 'lathrodectus is affected with constitu-
tional hydrophObia and falls over in a spasm il
| a single drop does but touch him. If you ap-
proach a small camel's hair brush loaded with
water to the nose OF almost any other kind of
spider the creature will seize it eagerly and
drink. The male spider is often only one
twentieth the size of the female of its species
and the female frequently makes meal of the
male