Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Tarantula

TARANTULA.The tarantula (Lycosa tarantula) belongs to the mining section of the family Lycosidæ or Wolf Spiders. Its cephalothorax is dorsally of a brownish grey colour, whilst the abdomen is more distinctly brown, and marked with either two or three pairs of triangular black spots above the apex of the triangles pointing backwards. One of the most striking specific characteristics of this spider is a large circular black spot which covers the anterior ventral half of the abdomen, the remainder of this surface presenting an ochreous hue. The largest species does not exceed 3/4 inch in length. The eight eyes are arranged in three transverse rows, the anterior containing four small eyes, while behind this two pairs of larger eyes are arranged in two rows, the eyes of the hindermost row having between them a wider interval than the first pair.

The tarantula, is widely distributed in southern Europe, round the shores of the Mediterranean. It occurs throughout Spain and is found in southern France, and extends into Asia. In Italy it is said to be especially common in Apulia, round the town of Taranto, from which place the name of this spider is usually derived. A species has also been described from northern Africa. It is usually to be found in dry pieces of waste land exposed to the sun. It lives in an underground passage, which it digs for itself and lines with its web. These passages are round in section, and sometimes an inch in diameter, and may extend to a depth of a foot or more below the surface. The tube first descends vertically for some inches, then bends at an obtuse angle, becoming vertical again near its closed end. The tarantula takes up its position at the first bend, where it can command the entrance, on the lookout for prey. In some cases the tube is prolonged above the surface of the earth by the formation of a small funnel, built up of fragments of wood and earth, and lined like the walls of the tunnel by the web. The females show considerable maternal care for their offspring, and sometimes sit upon their egg sacs; and the species, although somewhat fierce and combative amongst themselves, are capable of being tamed.

Tarantism.The tarantula has given its name to one of those dancing manias which overspread Europe during the Middle Ages. The bite of the spider threw the sufferer into a depressed state of melancholy, accompanied by various nervous disorders. The condition was accompanied by an increased sensibility to the power of music. The excitement of the nervous system amounted in some cases almost to insanity. The symptoms of the patient seem to have varied a good deal with the character of the individual attacked: the most common were a lividity of the body, icy coldness, great depression, nausea, sexual excitement, and loss of sight and hearing. The only means of arousing the sufferer from the lethargy into which he sank was music. Under the influence of this he awoke as it were, and commenced moving rhythmically, then began to dance, and continued increasing the rapidity of the motion until he fell exhausted to the ground. By this means it was considered that the poison of the tarantula was distributed through the system and worked out through the skin. If the music ceased whilst the patient was dancing, he at once sank back into the state of lethargy from which he had been aroused, but when thoroughly exhausted he generally awoke relieved and cured at least for a time. This dancing mania became contagious: one person caught it from another quite independently of the bite of the tarantula, and in this way whole districts became affected. One of the most peculiar characteristics was the attraction that bright pieces of metal, or brilliant pieces of colour, exercised over the imagination of the dancers. This was particularly marked in the later history of the disease. Each sufferer apparently admired one particular hue, the sight of which seemed to cause him the greatest rapture. Red was a very general favourite, though this colour threw St Vitus’s dancers into a frenzy of rage; green, yellow, and other colours also had numerous admirers. Other colours, on the contrary, they detested, and attempted to destroy articles of the obnoxious shade.

In marked contrast to the effect produced by hydrophobia, tarantism appeared to evoke in its victims an intense longing for the sea, into which at times they would precipitate themselves; at all times they seemed to prefer the vicinity of water, sometimes carrying globes of this fluid whilst dancing.

In its origin tarantism appears to have been contemporaneous with the St Vitus’s dance of Germany. It first appeared towards the end of the 14th century in Apulia; thence it spread gradually throughout Italy, and reached its height during the 17th century, by which time the dancing manias of the North had already died out. It affected not only inhabitants of the country but foreigners visiting it; age appears to have had no saving influence: children and old people alike commenced dancing at the sound of the tarantella, but as a rule women were more susceptible than men. From the 17th century onwards it has gradually declined, and is now practically unknown, the only relic of it being the graceful dance of southern Italy called the tarantella. The bite of the tarantula is painful but not dangerous, and the real cause of the phenomena described above must be sought in the temporary epidemic prevalence of an hysterical condition.

The Lycosa tarantula is figured in Ann. Sc. Nat., 2d ser., iii. Zoologie, 1835.