- Joined
- Jul 21, 2002
- Messages
- 1,700
Hi,
i´m pretty tired about this, so just a quick one:
Potentially lethal spiders are included in the genera (no ranking):
1.) Atrax / Hadronyche
2.) Latrodectus
3.) Loxosceles
4.) Phoneutria
5.) Sicarius
Within the funnelwebs it´s NOT A. robustus with the most active toxin but one of the Hadronyche ssp.´s.
Within Phoneutria it´s P. nigriventer with the most active toxin.
By mere bite statistics, accidents with Latrodectus and Loxosceles are much more likely to happen than with any of the both first mentioned genera.
Due to the fact that there´s antivenom available to my very personal opinion most dangerous spiders are African Sicarius species.
With other genera like Lampona or Trechona and so on former reports about significant toxicity are doubtful to say the least.
It has to be stressed that even bites of one of the most toxic species that don´t get treated with antivenom usually don´t result in death in healthy adults.
Have a nice sunday.
Greetings,
Stefan
Thanks for posting Stefan I pretty much agree, though I'd add Missulena spp. to the list of potential killers. Sicarius is the overall worst in my opinion also. With the highly toxic neurokillers, you either die or recover more or less completely. With cytotoxic baddies like Sicarius, non fatal bites can still lose you a limb and damage internal organs. Their chance of causing death is high, but chance of causing non-lethal harm is VERY high, so even if you survive, you won't get off scot-free. Plus, little to no available treatment is a real bummer.
Moral of the story: don't mess about with ANY of them and you won't have to find out firsthand!