Thursday, November 1, 2012

Lovable Critters

You are going to love this one folks.

The Sydney Funnel Spider has not killed a human for 30 years, thanks to anti-venom research. The male of the species is the most dangerous of the two, which is a little contradictory to the general rule of thumb for nasties.

A funnel-web's venom is packed with at least 40 different toxic proteins (called peptides). Only one, robustoxin, is really dangerous to humans. Like snake neurotoxins, robustoxin disrupts nerve signals, but in the opposite way. Instead of shutting down nerve signals, it switches them all on at once, causing massive electrical overload in the body's nervous system. The protein attaches itself to nerve synapses and prevents them from switching off - salivary glands, tear ducts and sweat glands all run uncontrollably, muscles begin to spasm, blood pressure climbs as vessels contract and then falls to dangerously low levels. Most fatalities occur from either cardiac arrest or a pulmonary oedema, where the capillaries around the lungs begin to leak and the patient effectively drowns. 

Now here is the good news:  

Not all creatures are affected by funnel-web poison: mice, rabbits, guineapigs, dogs and cats are relatively immune and often survive 100 times the lethal human dosage. In general the male is five times more dangerous than the female.

I can tell you, the funnel-web spider is a fearsome sight when it is in strike mode, as in the photo; however I have seen a much larger spider.

QLD BIRD EATING SPIDER (Selenocosmia crassipes)
Bird Eating Spider Tarantula
The Queensland bird eating spider is also commonly referred to as the Australian Tarantula.  This is one of several species of large, aggressive spiders, which are found in the warmer and more arid regions of Australia. The largest species may attain a body length of 60mm and a leg span of 160mm, with powerful fangs 10mm long. This is the largest species of spider in Australia, and is part of the tarantula family, which comprises of the largest spiders in the world.



Happy Dreams!!!!

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