tarantula

noun

1. Any of the large, hairy New World spiders comprising the family Theraphosidae.

   “Cockroaches, centipedes, tarantulas, scorpions, and mosquitoes are abundant in summer. [...] Tarantulas and scorpions are little noticed by those who have been there any length of time.”

   “In the southern portions of the State we have met with specimens of brown tarantula weighing a full Troy ounce, but these were of unusual size. The wood tarantula is the largest of all, occasional specimens weighing an ounce and a half, inhabits dead wood, is very active on a warm day, is found of sunning himself, and is quite courageous, leaping on a large lizard, with a perfect recklessness of consequences. [From the Alta California.]”

   “Visitors to Southern Arizona find the privacy of their homes invaded in a delightfully free and easy way by the original settlers of that region, namely the scorpions, centipedes, tarantulas, etc. [...]”

   “Clarabelle is a pinktoe tarantula—one of the very first tarantulas described by Western scientists. The gentle pinktoes were originally tree-dwelling forest tarantulas, but these days they're happy to build their silky retreats in the eaves of houses, in shrubs, and in the tube-like curves of pineapple leaves on plantations, too.”

2. (broadly)A member of certain other groups of spiders, generally characterized by large size, hairiness, or membership of infraorder Mygalomorphae to which Theraphosidae family also belongs.

   “The small funnel-web tarantulas are sedentary but notable for their aggressiveness and the strong action of their venom on human beings. A. robustus and formidabilis have caused human deaths.”

   “tergites: dorsal sclerites on the body; the hard plates on the abdomen of the atypical tarantulas that indicate segmentation”

   “The name "tarantula" is also mistakenly applied to other large-bodied spiders, and the "dwarf tarantulas". Both are classified in different families. Huntsman spiders of the family have also been termed "tarantulas" because of their large size.”

   “The defining feature of MB Stadium, that fat steel tarantula crouched over downtown Atlanta, is its fancy retractable roof. According to the latest word from NFL officials, the roof IS expected to be open for Sunday’s game.”

3. (dated)A species of wolf spider, Lycosa tarantula, native to southern Europe, the mildly poisonous bite of which was once thought to cause an extreme urge to dance (tarantism).

   “[I]t is better to be pained with the ſting of a Snake, and recouer, then be tickled with the venime of Tarantula and dye laughing: [...]”

   “Many men catch this malady [i.e., melancholy] by [...] ſtinging with that kind of ſpider called Tarantula; [...] Their ſymptomes are merrily deſcribed by Iovianus Pontanus. Ant. dial. how they daunce alogether, and are cured by Muſick.”

   “A Tarantula is a venemous Spider, ſo call'd from Tarentum, an ancient City of Magna Gracia, upon the Ionian Sea. Thoſe who are once bit by it, are never quite cur'd of the Venom; for it revives every Year, and occaſions a long Series of Evils, which would be very annoying to the Patients, if they did not take due Care of their Health by Dancing and Balls.”

   “On May 7, 1812, during my stay at Valencia, in Spain, I took, without hurting him, a tarantula of tolerable size, which I imprisoned in a glass covered over with paper, in which I had made a square opening. [...] He quickly accustomed himself to his cell, and ended by becoming so familiar, that he would come to eat out of my fingers the living fly that I brought him. [Translated from the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1835.]”

   “We [...] passed the night at a spring in a valley of the Kalkan hills, which literally swarmed with snakes, tarantulæ, scorpions, and other reptiles; for a long time after I could not shake off the recollection of that horrible resting-place.”