Word: laeta
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Loxosceles laeta, a poisonous arachnid native to South America, may have left its home in Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, but then again...
Herert W. Levi, Associate Curator of Arachnology at the Museum, has identified one of a number of spiders found alive in the basement as Loxosceles laeta, previously unknown in this country. It is believed that the species has been living undetected in Cambridge for several years...
...arachnid is related to the "brown spider" known as a public nuisance in Kansas and Oklahoma. How Loxosceles Laeta arrived here and how far it has spread is unknown, since it resembles certain domestic spiders...
Riots break out in Harvard Yard as freshmen returning from Christmas vacation discover that their rooms are infested with loxasceles laeta, poisonous Latin American spiders escaping from the University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. President Pusey announces that his Asian trip has converted him to "high-caste" Hinduism, and that "there will be no repressive measures taken against our little spider brothers." Acting on his orders to prevent violence, University Police crush the riot with tear gas and truncheons, driving the freshmen back into their spider-infested dorms...
Proud though he is of his laetas, Dr. Levi knows that they must be eliminated. But he is in no hurry. He points out that millions of dollars were spent in an effort to wipe out the South American fire ants that invaded the southern U.S. in the 1920s. No research was done in advance, and the ants are thriving still. Before attacking the spiders in his museum's basement. Dr. Levi intends to find out whether they have spread to other Harvard buildings in a search for their silverfish food. He wants to learn where the females...