Tarantism is a form of hysteric behaviour, popularly believed to result from the bite of a kind of wolf spider called a "tarantula" (Lycosa tarantula). (These spiders are different from the broad class of spiders called "Tarantulas".) A better candidate (as the bite of Lycosa tarantula is not in fact capable of producing significant ill effects), is Latrodectus tredecimguttatus, commonly known as the Mediterranean black widow or steppe spider, although no link between such bites and the behaviour of tarantism has ever been demonstrated. However, the term historically is used to refer to a dancing mania characteristic of Southern Italy and which likely had little to do with spider bites.