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Tarantulas, Gods and Arachnologists: An Outline of the History of the Study of New World Theraphosid Spiders

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New World Tarantulas

Part of the book series: Zoological Monographs ((ZM,volume 6))

Abstract

Tarantula spiders have repelled much of humankind since the beginning of recorded time. But not all. For a minority the spider is fascinating. This chapter is all about such individuals. Firstly from the Curiosity Cabinets of Europe’s trading elite—later in the spirit rooms of the new grandiose cathedrals of science that had sprung up in the cities of both the Old World and the New World. By 1900 no museum collection could be called complete—without a tarantula spider on display. From the earliest Neolithic image of a spider daubed on an Egyptian rock face, amongst sacred symbols that no longer have meaning—to the iconic image of a copper plate engraving of a Bird Eating Spider, by the seventeenth-century naturalist and artist Madam Maria Sibylla Merian—this chapter traces the history of natural history. From the Victorian scientists of the heyday of European research, to the exciting DNA studies being undertaken today by a new generation of arachnologists—the heart of all that research remains one of the most awe-inspiring animals to ever walk the face of this planet—The Tarantula Spider.

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Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Paul Hillyard, Robert Peck, Herb Levi, Sylvia Lucas, Rogerio Bertani, Fernando Pérez-Miles, Robert Raven, Stuart Longhorn, Dieter Scholz, Michael Ziegler, Ray Gabriel, Rick West, Eddy Hijmenson, Richard Gallon, Peter Kirk, Peter Klaas, Michael Sullivan, and Gunter Schmidt. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer whose wise and helpful advice helped immensely in the redrafting of my first draft. I am also grateful to Carl Portman, for taking time to look at my even more idiosyncratic grammar.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Retired, Research Associate Natural History Museum, London, England, UK

    Andrew M. Smith

  2. Bexhill-On-Sea, England, UK

    Andrew M. Smith

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  1. Andrew M. Smith
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  1. Facultad de Ciencias, Sección Entomología, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay

    Fernando Pérez-Miles

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Smith, A.M. (2020). Tarantulas, Gods and Arachnologists: An Outline of the History of the Study of New World Theraphosid Spiders. In: Pérez-Miles, F. (eds) New World Tarantulas. Zoological Monographs, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48644-0_17

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