Segestria is able to catch game less inoffensive than the Drone-fly. A
Common Wasp, they tell me, does not daunt her. Though I have not tested
this, I readily believe it, for I well know the Spider's boldness.

This boldness is reinforced by the activity of the venom. It is enough to
have seen the Segestria capture some large Fly to be convinced of the
overwhelming effect of her fangs upon the insects bitten in the neck. The
death of the Drone-fly, entangled in the silken funnel, is reproduced by
the sudden death of the Bumble-bee on entering the Tarantula's burrow. We
know the effect of the poison on man, thanks to Antoine Duges'
investigations. (Antoine Louis Duges (1797-1838), a French physician and
physiologist, author of a "Traite de physiologie comparee de l'homme et des
animaux" and other scientific works.--Translator's Note.) Let us listen to
the brave experimenter:

"The treacherous Segestria, or Great Cellar Spider, reputed poisonous in
our part of the country, was chosen for the principal subject of our
experiments. She was three-quarters of an inch long, measured from the
mandibles to the spinnerets. Taking her in my fingers from behind, by the
legs, which were folded and gathered together (this is the way to catch
hold of live Spiders, if you would avoid their bite and master them without
mutilating them), I placed her on various objects and on my clothes,
without her manifesting the least desire to do any harm; but hardly was she
laid on the bare skin of my fore-arm when she seized a fold of the
epidermis in her powerful mandibles, which are of a metallic green, and
drove her fangs deep into it. For a few moments she remained hanging,
although left free; then she released herself, fell and fled, leaving two
tiny wounds, a sixth of an inch apart, red, but hardly bleeding, with a
slight extravasation round the edge and resembling the wounds produced by a
large pin.