News of the two-striped telamonia spider is circulating on the Web again, but it's just another one of those urban legends.

The latest version of the story, which first surfaced in 1999, goes like this: Three women in North Florida turned up at hospitals over a five-day period, all displaying the same symptoms: fever, chills and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis and finally death. There were no outward signs of trauma.

The women didn't know each other, but they had eaten at the same restaurant. When a waitress from that restaurant was rushed to the hospital, health inspectors zeroed in on the eating establishment.

What they found, according to the e-mail, was a small spider under the toilet seat. It was identified as the two-striped telamonia, and its venom is extremely toxic. It thrives in cold, dark, damp climates -- with toilet rims providing the perfect environment.

The e-mail goes on to say that nests of these spiders were found in planes traveling here from India and that the poisonous spiders could now be anywhere in the United States. Readers were warned that when using a public toilet they should always lift the seat to check for spiders.

Turns out there are indeed two-striped telamonias (telamonia dimidiata). They're jumping spiders and come from Singapore, Indonesia and India. But they're not poisonous.

So if this e-mail arrives in your inbox, it's a hoax.