| Huntsmen
are large, rather flat, fast-moving hairy spiders. In the bush
they usually hide under bark and capture their prey, mostly at night,
with a burst of speed and powerful, side-moving jaws. They often
invade houses, even in the suburbs, where most people will quickly
try to kill them or at least remove them. This is not really
necessary, however, as most Huntsmen are harmless to humans.
Many Australians call these big
spiders Tarantulas, but this name only truly applies to the
European Wolf Spider which lives near the town of Taranto in
Italy. The locals believed that a bite from this spider was
deadly unless the victim performed a rather energetic dance called
a Tarentella. The truth is that the dance is not at all
helpful and the Tarantula is pretty much harmless.
Nevertheless the myth and the name persists, and a wide range of
large, hairy spiders all over the world are now called Tarantulas.
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