Fabre[281] acted the part of the “insidious rustic” with slight success; but by other stratagems he enticed the creatures from their holes, and made some interesting observations upon the effects of their bite. He found that bees and wasps were instantaneously killed by them. This immediately fatal effect he found to be due to the fact that the spider invariably struck the insect in a particular spot, at the junction of the head with the thorax. Bees must often wander into Tarantula’s holes, and a prolonged contest, though it might end in the death of the insect, would be certain also to result fatally for the spider. It has, therefore, acquired the habit of striking its foe in the one spot which causes instant death. When Fabre presented a bee to a Tarantula in such a manner that it was bitten in some other region, the insect survived several hours. A young sparrow, just ready to leave the nest, was bitten in the leg. The wound became inflamed, and the limb appeared to be paralysed, but the victim did not at first suffer in general health, and fed heartily; death resulted, however, on the third day. A mole died in thirty-six hours after the bite. From these experiments, Fabre came to the conclusion that the venom of the Tarantula was at all events too powerful to be entirely negligible by man. [Illustration: FIG. 197.—_Latrodectus mactans_, ♂, natural size. ] Trifling causes may have a fatal effect upon a man in ill health, and it is quite possible that death has sometimes resulted from the Tarantula’s bite. Its effect upon a healthy subject, however, is certainly not serious. Goldsmith, in his _Animated Nature_, entirely discredits the current stories about this animal, saying that the Italian peasants impose upon credulous travellers by allowing themselves, for money, to be bitten by the Tarantula, and then feigning all the symptoms which are traditionally supposed to ensue. There is a genus of the Theridiidae, by name _Latrodectus_, whose poisonous reputation almost rivals that of the Tarantula. It is remarkable, moreover, that it is regarded as particularly dangerous in such widely separated portions of the world as Madagascar, New Zealand, Algeria, the West Indies, and North America. These spiders, strangely enough, are by no means particularly large or formidable in appearance.