spiders often thought of as insects but correctly considered to be part of the separate class Arachnida, are a remarkably successful group of creatures which exist in many forms, some of them large enough to be worth eating and regarded as delicacies in certain, mostly primitive, societies. Hillyard (1995) has provided the most recent summary survey, in which he observes that the people who relish spiders include ‘Indians in South America, the Bushmen of southern Africa, and the Aborigines or native Australians’. His own account draws on the detailed description by the English spider enthusiast Dr W. S. Bristowe (1924), who conducted some of his research in Laos, where he found that the giant orb-weavers (Nephila spp) were popular fare; the abdomen would often be bitten off and eaten raw, having a mild taste like that of raw potato mixed with lettuce. However, the favourite was a large blue-legged tarantula in the genus Melopoeus, which was described as being especially nutritious, with a 60 per cent protein content.
