Arachnid Synonyms

In recent times the term tarantula has been applied indiscriminately to many different kinds of large spiders in no way related to Lycosa tarantula; and to at least one Arachnid belonging to a distinct order.

The bi-ramose structure of the post-oral limbs, demonstrated by Beecher in the trilobite Triarthrus, is no more inconsistent with its claim to be a primitive Arachnid than is the foliaceous modification of the limbs in Phyllopods inconsistent with their relationship to the Arthrostracous Crustaceans such as Gammarus and Oniscus.

In Queensland one of the largest local spiders, known as Holconia immanis, a member of the family Clubionidae, bears the name tarantula; and in Egypt it was a common practice of the British soldiers to put together scorpions and tarantulas, the latter in this instance being specimens of the large and formidable desert-haunting Arachnid, Galeodes lucasii, a member of the order Solifugae.

Arachnidism-Poisoning resulting from the bite or sting of an arachnid.

The various comparisons previously made between the structure of Limulus and the Eurypterines on the one hand, and that of a typical Arachnid, such as Scorpio, on the other, had been vitiated by erroneous notions as to the origin of the nerves supplying the anterior appendages of Limulus (which were finally removed by Alphonse Milne-Edwards in his beautiful memoir (6) on the structure of that animal), and secondly by the erroneous identification of the double sternal plates of Limulus, called " chilaria," by Owen, with a pair of appendages (7).