''Lycosa tarantula'' is the species originally known as the tarantula, a name that nowadays in English commonly refers to spiders in another family entirely, the

Theraphosidae Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...

. It now may be better called the tarantula wolf spider, being in the

wolf spider Wolf spiders are members of the family Lycosidae (). They are robust and agile hunters with excellent eyesight. They live mostly in solitude, hunt alone, and do not spin webs. Some are opportunistic hunters, pouncing upon prey as they find it or ...

family, the Lycosidae. ''L. tarantula'' is a large species found in southern Europe, especially in the Apulia region of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and near the city of

Taranto Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...

, from which it gets its name.The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.(2009), Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company. " edieval Latin, from Old Italian ''tarantola'', after . Historical superstition has it that the spider's bite can produce severe symptoms called

tarantism Tarantism is a form of hysteric behaviour originating in Southern Italy, popularly believed to result from the bite of the wolf spider '' Lycosa tarantula'' (distinct from the broad class of spiders also called tarantulas). A better candidate c ...

Description

These spiders are rather large, the females being as large as 30 mm (1.18 in) in body length and the males around 19 mm (0.75 in). As with other wolf spiders, the silken sac containing over 100 eggs is carried attached to the mother's spinnerets, and then after they hatch, the spiderlings climb on their mother's abdomen and ride around with her for some time until they are sufficiently mature to survive on their own. After leaving their mother's protection, the young spiders disperse and dig burrows. Females live in their burrows all their lives except for nocturnal forays to capture prey, but the mature males leave the protection of burrows and wander about looking for mates. The males can live for 2 years. The females can live for 4 years or more. Many sexual encounters (about one-third according to one study) end in the female's cannibalising the male instead. During the winter, these spiders hibernate in their burrows. They are a nocturnal species and generally lurk at the mouths of their burrows waiting for prey, so people are unlikely to encounter them. Unlike the Salticidae (

jumping spider Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that constitute the family Salticidae. As of 2019, this family contained over 600 described genera and over 6,000 described species, making it the largest family of spiders at 13% of all species. Jumping spi ...

s), which may exhibit curiosity about humans and may be content to wander around on one's hand, the Lycosidae (wolf spiders) have a very strong tendency to flee at the approach of any large animal. They have quite good eyesight, so a human likely cannot approach them unseen, and capturing them is relatively difficult because they keep moving and can run very fast. When wolf spiders are cornered, they show no inclination to make threat displays, much less to advance on a human's hand with the intention of biting.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in 1758 (as ''Aranea tarantula''). It was transferred to the genus ''

Lycosa ''Lycosa'' is a genus of wolf spiders distributed throughout most of the world. Sometimes called the "true tarantula", though not closely related to the spiders most commonly called tarantulas today, ''Lycosa'' spp. can be distinguished from comm ...

'' by

Pierre André Latreille Pierre André Latreille (; 29 November 1762 – 6 February 1833) was a French zoologist, specialising in arthropods. Having trained as a Roman Catholic priest before the French Revolution, Latreille was imprisoned, and only regained his freedom ...

in 1806. Charles Athanase Walckenaer in the same 1806 publication described the subspecies ''narbonensis'', which in 1837 he raised to a full species as ''Lycosa narbonensis''. A molecular phylogenetic study in 2013 showed that specimens assigned to this taxon were not genetically different from ''Lycosa tarantula'', so that ''L. narbonensis'' is now treated as synonym of ''L. tarantula''.

Tarantism

A once-traditional belief among Apulian peasantry is that a person bitten by one of these spiders must be treated by indulging in a special kind of dancing. The dance, or some version of it, is now known as the

tarantella () is a group of various southern Italian folk dances originating in the regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia. It is characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in time (sometimes or ), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the mo ...

. However, the

bites Biting is a common zoological behavior involving the active, rapid closing of the jaw around an object. This behavior is found in toothed animals such as mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, but can also exist in arthropods. Myocytic cont ...

of this spider are not known to cause severe symptoms in humans, much less endanger human life.Fabre, Jean-Henri; Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos; The Life of the spider;Pub: Dodd, Mead, New York,1916. Download from: https://archive.org/details/lifespider00fabrgoog

Venom

In common with all other spiders (except the

Uloboridae Uloboridae is a family of non-venomous spiders, known as cribellate orb weavers or hackled orb weavers. Their lack of venom glands is a secondarily evolved trait. Instead, they wrap their prey thoroughly in silk, cover it in regurgitated digestive ...

) ''L. tarantula'' possesses venom, which is important to the spider as a means to kill its prey, and secondarily, to protect itself. Evolutionarily, the venoms were tailored for subduing insect prey, and mammal species can have vastly different reactions to the same spider venom. ''L. tarantula'' will rarely bite, unless continually provoked, and its venom is not particularly toxic to human beings, and is no more painful than the sting of a bee.

Fabre Fabre or Fabré is a surname of Occitan French origin, and a given name. Notable people with the name include: * André Fabre (born 1945), French thoroughbred horse racing trainer * Cándido Fabré, Cuban musician, songwriter and singer * Cath ...

, however, did demonstrate that an artificially administered tarantula bite can kill small mammals and birds. Given the low toxicity of wolf spider bites and the small likelihood of actually being bitten, medical research efforts have not been directed toward the bites of ''L. tarantula''.

Subspecies

* ''L. t. carsica'' Caporiacco, 1949 — Italy * ''L. t. cisalpina'' Simon, 1937 — France

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q1317090, from2=Q2663428 Spiders described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Spiders of Europe Lycosidae