Peruvian Amazon -- arachnids

[AlanMM]

I was talking about: "banana spiders are very deadly". Where did he get that.
I don't know a thing about the priapism...

 

[cacoseraph]

I was talking about: "banana spiders are very deadly". Where did he get that.
I don't know a thing about the priapism...

actually i think most of the heavy spiders can give you a.. hard time i believe i recall seeing reports for Loxosceles, Latrodectus, and now Phoneutria



yeah, they are mostly deadly... to roaches and other small bugs =P

there are species with confirmed kills... but the actual chance of dying if you got to a hospital is so negligible as to not really come into play. especially if one of the "weaker" species is the one that bites you


that being said... they CAN do some pretty dramatic systemic affects and 98% of the ppl in the study in that paper i mentioned had some kind of noticeable affects from the spider... 8% sounded fairly uncomfortable and 0.5% has some craziness go down

 

[AlanMM]

actually i think most of the heavy spiders can give you a.. hard time i believe i recall seeing reports for Loxosceles, Latrodectus, and now Phoneutria

Hmm, natural Viagra then...
(I did heard something like that before, but also heard it wans't true. Great to hear that not all things in newspapers are "stories")

there are species with confirmed kills... but the actual chance of dying if you got to a hospital is so negligible as to not really come into play. especially if one of the "weaker" species is the one that bites you

Ok, then we agree that saying these spiders are very deadly to humans is exaggerated.

By the way can you PM me a link to that paper, I can't find it...

 

[Scorpendra]

Nice shots of the Phoneutria. You say it was sitting quietly? From all the recent discussion, I'd have expected it to whip out a glock and shoot you on sight! I heard that misidentification causes a bit of discrepancy about which species have confirmed kills and which ones don't...although I can't imagine one not being medically important.

Isn't the orange and black one a Sparassid?

 

[skippy]

A real monster, the largest arachnid that I have ever encountered. It was heavy enough to be heard as it ran across the floor of the photo lab.

i am fairly certain that this one is a mature male pamphobeteus of some kind. not platyomma, nigricolor, S equador or any others with bright male coloring obviously though.

 

[moloch]

Thanks, everyone, for all of the info. Whether the discussion was based on "rumors" or factual, it all was interesting. I knew nothing about these spiders until reading the comments here and on the marathon post of Phoneutria.

I did see shots in an earlier reptile posting on FieldHerpForum of an annoyed Phoneutria. It was interesting how the Banana Spider held two pairs of legs elevated and tightly pressed together when it reared. Funnel webs usually have the legs apart when they do the same. The guy who posted on FHF found one of these spiders in his gum boot one morning. Sounds like an unpleasant surprise!


The Phoneutria that I obsevered were ususally sitting on the upper surface of leaves near the tops of small shrubs. I think that there would have been invertebrate "interaction" a little later in the night. I saw both of the following feeding and working their way up a shrub without knowing the surprise that awaited them when they neared the shrubtop:

... waiting on the upper leaves was:

I think others have suggested Sparassid as well for the orange and black spider ... quite a nice looking animal.


Thanks again,
David

 

[Zoltan]

Great pictures, I love the shots of the amblipygids. I wonder if that big black theraphosid could be Pamphobeteus crassifemur?

 

[YeloNeck]

I hope that paradise looks exactly like pictures of yours !

 

[moloch]

Thanks, YeloNeck. The Amazon basin was a beautiful place to visit!

Thanks also for the suggested identification, Zoltan.

Regards,
David