Scientific Illustration

Scorpion, Hornet, Tarantula, Wasp, Rattle Snake by Library & Archives @ Royal Ontario Museum on Flickr.

geneseelibby:

Tarantula and tarantella, Athanasius Kircher

Tarantula and the musical antidote to its poison, the tarantella, from Magnes, sive de arte magnetica (1643 edn.), p. 763

via Stanford

(via compendium-of-beasts)

compendium-of-beasts:

Eine Vogelspinne tödtet einen Kolibri. (a tarantula kills a hummingbird) (1803-1805)

via NYPL

compendium-of-beasts:

[Tarantula catching a bird.] (1885)

via NYPL

biomedicalephemera:

Xenestis colombiana [Xenesthis immanis] - The Colombian Lesser Black

This is one of the mid-sized (6-9 cm long) tarantulas, with a habitat that ranges from Colombia down through most of Peru and nearby countries. Like all tarantulas, the venom this spider possesses is of far less danger to humans than the threat of infection in the sometimes-large puncture wounds it inflicts. In fact, since 1900,  there have been only three recorded deaths by tarantulas in people without a known severe allergy to one or more of the venom’s components, and all three of those people almost certainly had *some* predisposing factor for death, but no post-mortem testing was done/could be done.

Personally, I’m a lot more afraid of pissing off tarantulas because of their abdominal hairs. They use their back legs to flick off these extremely urticating (itch-inducing substance) hairs, and those things do NOT come out of your nose or eyes easily if they get in there. Don’t annoy tarantulas, ya? You won’t die, but you’ll almost certainly regret it.  

Animaux Venimeux et Venins. Marie Phisalix, 1922.

n16_w1150 by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

n136_w1150 by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Die Arachniden. bd.1-4 (1831), plates 1-144
Nürnberg :In der C. H. Zeh’schen Buchhandlung,1831-1848.
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/37029125

On a new spider of the family of Theraphosidae

Tarantula anatomy

From: De tarantulae anatome et morsu opusculum historicio-mechanicum inquo nonnullae demonstrantur insecti particulae ab aliis non adhuc inventae Opera, et studio Nicolai Caputi. Published 1741

Description of the male and illustration of the female receptacula of Yamia watasei Kishida, 1920 (Arachnida, Araneae, Theraphosidae, Selenocosmiinae).