I’m calling this furry little guy an orange spider. The wonderful natural history textbook that it came from was written in French in 1822. The official name given to him is shown below in the label from the colorful book plate.
I did look up the name from the plate and it took me to a French page that said these are called camel spiders and that their Latin name roughly translates to “leaking the sun.” Leaking the sun, assuming the translation software has that close, is an interesting way to describe a species of a brightly colored orange spider with a green thorax. I love the pair of false eyes on his ‘back’.
Camel spiders are known for their hairy legs (yeah, I know that’s not what they are called but I’m just a gal who likes playing with these old botanical prints and not a botanist or entomologist). I think that’s a big part of what drew me to this orange spider drawing – the bright orange and green colors and all those little hairs.
This orange spider drawing is of a fairly good size and should print a little over four inches square.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
