Are tarantulas susceptible to their own venom?

[Brendan Straut]

It seems to make sense to me that poisonous and venomous animals be resistant to their own venom/poison. However, I know that female tarantulas and spiders often eat their mates after mating, and that spiders digest their food into a soup that they can ingest with their sucking mouths. So I was wondering, are tarantulas susceptible to their own venom? Further, are all venomous animals, since venom only works intravenously and venomous animals don't go around injecting themselves, only their prey?

 

[darkness975]

Well I'm not an expert on the subject of envenomation. That being said all I can do is offer a guess. Part of the job of the venom is to break down the prey into a digestable soup. Theoretically this includes breaking down the enzymes of the venom in their meal along with the rest of the animal. If they were susceptible to the venom of their prey I would think it would kill an awful lot of females. Not to mention that they often ingest other venomous animals in nature.

Hadrurus arizonensis, while not a tarantula, is a prime example of a venomous invertebrate that readily eats other scorpions, tarantulas, and each other.

 

[Sarkhan42]

Venom is not the same as poison. They are still affected by their venom, when injected, but can digest it same as any other organism would be able to. I could probably drink a tarantula venom shot and be alright, though I can't promise it would be tasty. Poison is different animal to animal though, I'm not sure which can handle their own.

 

[Poec54]

People drink snake venom. It's only effective if injected into tissue. Tarantulas don't need to be immune to their own venom, as the deep punctures and tears from the fangs usually mortally wound them, if they don't die immediately.

 

[lalberts9310]

Well, I once had an incident where my female P. Irminia slapped my paint brush and for some odd reason, her tarsus got stuck in the hairs of my brush, as I tried to free her leg she started biting the brush puncturing her tarsus with her fangs in the process. She leaked a few drops of haemolymph but the wound healed up and thankfully she didn't decide to toss her leg. I was extremely worried that she might have injected venom and was scared it might be fatal, but she's fine. So my guess would be that they are immune to their own venom. Just my guess though.

Safe to say I haven't used that brush since, I'd rather stick with chopsticks and straws.

 

[Brendan Straut]

So I guess my question is, when a male gets eaten by a female, does the male die from the mechanical damage or from the venom? Either way I have to assume the venom does it's soupifying magic, otherwise the female couldn't get any nutrition from eating the male

 

[darkness975]

So I guess my question is, when a male gets eaten by a female, does the male die from the mechanical damage or from the venom?

The female's venom being injected into the male's "veins" for lack of a better term.

 

[lalberts9310]

Well if a male gets eaten by a female, I would assume it dies from mechanical damage, since the female will usually grab the male by the carapace. I have no idea however as to how a tarantula reacts to being envenomated by another tarantula.

 

[viper69]

No one knows is the real answer. Even with snakes, if memory serves, it's only speculation among venom evolutionary biologists that same-species attacks (rare) would produce little or no affect.

However, if a venomous snake bites itself repeatedly, it can die as a result of its body being overwhelmed by the large amount of venom in injected into the body. This has been documented in a cobra.

The female's venom being injected into the male's "veins" for lack of a better term.

Tarantulas have an open circulatory system, not a closed one.

 

[BorisTheSpider]

I could probably drink a tarantula venom shot and be alright

My understanding is that most venoms are made up of proteins that are simply broken down in the stomach by digestive juices . If they are injected into the abdomen , such as when a female kills a male after mating , then they are free to do damage . I vaguely remember reading an article that said something about snakes possessing anti-bodies in their blood that acts as anti-venom in the eevnt that they accidentally bite themselves while attacking a prey animal . I don't have any idea if this is true in Ts , but I wouldn't think so .

BTW , way off topic but if you went into a bar somewhere and ordered a "tarantula venom" what do you think it would be made of ?
I am guessing Cuervo and lime juice garnished with a kiwi wedge since they are brown and hairy like most Ts .

 

[viper69]

I vaguely remember reading an article that said something about snakes possessing anti-bodies in their blood that acts as anti-venom in the eevnt that they accidentally bite themselves while attacking a prey animal . I don't have any idea if this is true in Ts , but I wouldn't think so .

It's true for venomous snakes. The underlying thought is there's a low level of toxins in a venomous snake's bloodstream.

Also, toxins evolve to work on specific prey or predators, and it's believed/suggested that the targets of a snake's toxin (typically ion channels) in the prey have a different amino acid sequence in the venom producing animal itself. This change in sequence has been demonstrated in the literature if memory serves. Thus the toxins won't bind to the host animal's ion channels.

This change in amino acid sequence is true for a garter snake in the Western USA where a specific sodium channel has a different sequence thus allowing it to eat California newts where the same toxin kills many other predators of the newt.

 

[Poec54]

So I guess my question is, when a male gets eaten by a female, does the male die from the mechanical damage or from the venom?

Have you watched what tarantulas do to crickets? Within seconds they rip them apart with their fangs. They try to do that with males, but they can't shred them as fast because of their size. I've rescued attacked males but they've never survived. It could be blood loss, internal bleeding, organ punctured, the depth and severity of the wound, the venom, or some combination.

 

[BorisTheSpider]

Have you watched what tarantulas do to crickets? Within seconds they rip them apart with their fangs. They try to do that with males, but they can't shred them as fast because of their size. I've rescued attacked males but they've never survived. It could be blood loss, internal bleeding, organ punctured, the depth and severity of the wound, the venom, or some combination.

Yep , once she gets a hold you might as well let her finish . I have also never had a male survive .

 

[Poec54]

Yep , once she gets a hold you might as well let her finish . I have also never had a male survive .

Right, same here. Once a fang's penetrated deep, he's done.

 

[shaneshac]

Scorpions males will readily sting the females to calm them down during mating. I dont think the venom affects them the same as it would another species.

not sure about Tarantulas though

 

[dragonfire1577]

well cobras are known to be resistant (not immune) to their own venom but they are definitely much more prone to biting themselves by accident during a hunt due to their long body then with a T which possesses a much more compact design and is extremely unlikely to ever bite itself even once during its lifespan so I'd guess it's not extremely likely they are even resistant to their own venom and if they are it's probably because their venom is designed to kill their prey not themselves.