Easy! I have one in a jar on my desk in the classroom.
Thats it exactly.
The smaller the animal, the physically weaker, generally follows it is the deadlier.
A gaboon viper, for instance, is a big, bad downright mean snake, and whilst its venom is potent, and delivered in a massive, deeply injected quantity, weight for weight, is a relatively slower acting toxin, where prey items are concerned, cytotoxins usually are, compare a large target given a defensive or aggressive bite, rather than a feeding strike to a rodent, for instance, which would die within seconds or minutes most likely.
Gaboon viper, whomping great dose of venom, likely enough to kill its target twenty times over, but may take minutes, maybe 15-20 minutes, or even more, to damage a human, or heavily built simian threat to the point where the target is rendered either dead or incapacitated, that is a lot of time for an enraged victim to try and tear the snake a new rectum before death occurs, representing a huge risk, even to a powerful snake.
According to wikipedia, a gaboon viper is capable of delivering a maximum of almost 2.5g of venom (dry weight) in a strike, weight for weight, the venom doesn't compare with that of say, a mamba, or a taipan, but estimates based on monkeys of similar weight, project a figure, again according to wikipedia, of between 14 and 90-100mg of venom to kill a 70kg human, so even in a truly massive overdose that would still take multiple minutes, to multiple tens of minutes to cripple or kill.
I.E enough at the MINIMUM potency figured, that snake would be capable of dumping enough venom into the target to kill a man 25 times over, or if that lowest estimate is closer to true on average, then almost 180 times enough to kill a man...damn! that is one snake not to be crossed
Then look at a sea snake, with tiny fangs, and a much less physically powerful body, said snake, has neither the 4 foot lunge, the two and a half inch wicked pair of daggers for fangs, or the capability to deliver a massive quantity of venom, so it has to be able to kill its target very quickly, with a minimum of struggle, such a snake could doubtfully afford to employ a haemolytic cytotoxin, which takes minutes to act, and deliver multiple orders of magnitude less venom, so it must act orders of magnitude faster and be similarly more lethal weight for weight by a long shot.
Granted a sea snake isn't likely to go biting any chimps, but aquatic predators, that sea snake doesn't have the advantage of being a 5 foot monster the thickness of a mans leg with fangs the size of your little finger that can be driven instantly, deep down into highly vascularised tissue for rapid absorption, but tiny fangs that are hard to bite with, a body that could be snapped in half by a powerfully built marine predator if it had time to act before the venom paralysed the target, so that neurotoxin has to act FAST and be very potent.
Likewise look at scorpions, you have a big beast like P.imperator, the tank of the scorp world, with a sting not much worse than a wasp, or a chilean red knee tarantula, but with heavily muscled claws that have no problem at all smashing prey to meatpaste.
Then look at say, Leiurus, or even Centruroides, small delicate claws, that could be broken by a bite from a mammalian predator, a rats jaws could take those claws clean off, whereas the emp would likely smash the rats head to meatpaste, a sting from the emp is just going to irritate the rat, but a whack from the deathstalker, with its potent venom, that rat is screwed big time.
Yet again, look at Dendrobatid frogs, vulnerable, squishy little tiny frogs, but packing such a potent toxin, that merely touching a tissue that one such frog had walked on, has been known to kill a dog in less than half a minute, and a blowgun dart tainted with batrachotoxin would paralyse a human almost instantaneously, and if it came from Phyllobates terribilis and was dosed with a lot of toxin, might even result in death before, or moments after the target hits the ground.
And cone snails, there is another good example, they are slow moving, and have no other way to defend themselves whatsoever, as many species hunt fast moving fish that could easily take a pound of flesh out of the cone snail. I have seen video clips of such a snail hunting, and a cone shell took down a fish at least 4 times its size, with a single tiny harpoon, the fish was dead before it had time to twitch.
It seems that the less physically imposing the species, and the less weight of venom they can deliver, the deadlier the venom has to be, and the faster acting.
Dinoponera/Paraponera/Megaponera 'bullet ant' can deliver 1ug, maybe 2ug, 2.5ug absolute top range, and enough stings to count on the fingers of a single hand, could, if unlucky, kill, that is a miniscule quantity of venom, packed by a 1-2 inch ant, and not all that venom will be poneratoxin itself, but a load of other crap like histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, maybe, just going from actives in other hymenopteran venom minor constituents, along with the liquid vehicle itself.
Stands to reason, seeing how the size/physical strength to venom LD:50 ratio appears inversely proportional, that a tiny wee jellyfish like Carukia barnesi is going to have to pack an absolute brute of a toxic payload in those microscopic nematocysts, spread on 4 tentacles that could be between 2 inches long, and a meter or so, along with the bell, just think how bloody potent that venom must be, if something the size of a nematocyst, distributed over 4 2 inch tentacles is sufficient to protect the jellyfish, which will die from the trauma of drifting into the side of an aquarium, that venom must, in the case of fish, or similar predators, be able to kill or at the very minimum completely incapacitate more or less straight away, anything less than instantly means a dead jellyfish.
I find it quite interesting, that unlike almost all jellyfish, Carukia barnesi bears nematocysts upon the bell also, as well as the tentacles, most jellyfish, Chironex included, do not, Chironex fleckiri is much more resistant to being battered about than an irukanji, the venom weight for weight must be less lethal, as it takes contact with between several feet to over a meter of tentacle length, irukanji venom weight for weight makes box jellyfish venom look like frickin' tabasco sauce. But the sea wasp doesn't bear nematocysts on the bell, like an irukanji do, I bet it has something to do with the fragility of Carukia and Malo sp meaning that it has to be able to bring a rapidly lethal dose of venom to bear on a target that isn't in contact with the tentacles, but is nosing about with a view to having jellyfish and icecream for desert.
Whereas the box jelly can afford just to float along until trouble comes, knowing full well that it packs a great cluster of long, thick tentacles packed to bursting with such a vicious cardiotoxin that it is capable of killing a healthy adult within minutes if they are unlucky enough to take a full on envenomation, and if not, there are some nasty myotoxins and haemolytic nastiness thrown in for good measure.
Capping yourself in the face after a Leiurus sting would be a bit dumb, hello, darwin awards, I'd like to nominate.....
Look on the sting reports here, there are a few people who have been got by them, remember, very low LD:50 does not equal definately fatal, for LQ does not deliver a vast quantity of venom per sting, nowhere near as much as say, Androctonus, or hell, it wouldn't surprise me if that huge great monster telson on the business end of P.imperator puts out a vast amount more venom than LQ ever could.
i caught a brown widow 3 days ago are they more toxic then mactans and hesperusyes, it is perfectly ok. no real precautionary measures, just don't be stupid, be responsible. no specifics supplies, just some little grabbers if you want. no legal issues. they are very fun pets. i sometimes hand feed mine. great fun
