The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre,
Translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

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Title: The Life of the Spider

Author: J. Henri Fabre

Release Date: March 22, 2005 [eBook #1887]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF THE SPIDER***

Transcribed from the 1912 Hodder and Stoughton edition by David Price,
email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

THE LIFE OF THE SPIDER

CHAPTER I: THE BLACK-BELLIED TARANTULA

The Spider has a bad name: to most of us, she represents an odious,
noxious animal, which every one hastens to crush under foot. Against
this summary verdict the observer sets the beast's industry, its talent
as a weaver, its wiliness in the chase, its tragic nuptials and other
characteristics of great interest. Yes, the Spider is well worth
studying, apart from any scientific reasons; but she is said to be
poisonous and that is her crime and the primary cause of the repugnance
wherewith she inspires us. Poisonous, I agree, if by that we understand
that the animal is armed with two fangs which cause the immediate death
of the little victims which it catches; but there is a wide difference
between killing a Midge and harming a man. However immediate in its
effects upon the insect entangled in the fatal web, the Spider's poison
is not serious for us and causes less inconvenience than a Gnat-bite.
That, at least, is what we can safely say as regards the great majority
of the Spiders of our regions.

Nevertheless, a few are to be feared; and foremost among these is the
Malmignatte, the terror of the Corsican peasantry. I have seen her
settle in the furrows, lay out her web and rush boldly at insects larger
than herself; I have admired her garb of black velvet speckled with
carmine-red; above all, I have heard most disquieting stories told about
her. Around Ajaccio and Bonifacio, her bite is reputed very dangerous,
sometimes mortal. The countryman declares this for a fact and the doctor
does not always dare deny it. In the neighbourhood of Pujaud, not far
from Avignon, the harvesters speak with dread of _Theridion lugubre