Tarantulas eat frogs?

[Stylopidae]

It's actually one of the best foods, and one of the few vertebrates they ACTUALY eat in the wild. While I still search for wild pics of a T eating a rodent, images of T's eating frogs in the wild abund.

Steve Nunn has said in other threads that rat skulls are a common find in the burrows of some species of tarantula.

My theory is that they enter the spider's burrow looking for something to eat and are then overpowered.

aussie Ts eat cane toads and arent native to the same place cane toads are since the cane toad iw an introduced species to Australia
And please dont try to tell me that they evolved to eat the cane toads because that contradicts the evolutionary need for huge periods of time. according to evolutionary theory as i under stand it , cane toads havent been in australia long enough for predators to evolve to eat it and thats why they are so invasive. The Australian Ts must be able to eat them fopr some other reason than they evolved to be able to.

There is no need for evolution to take massive amounts of time. Often, single mutations can cause animals to become immune to new sources of toxins in their environment...similar to how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics.

There are many, many examples of how insects have acquired immunity to pesticides like organophosphates and DDT.

Here's a good article about how a single mutation can save an entire species.

In fact some of the snakes in Australia have changed their body type to allow them to dine on the toxic toads...narrower throat means smaller frogs are eaten, and in turn less bufotoxin ingested. Bigger body, the more bufotoxin it takes to harm the snake.

Cane toads themselves have undergone considerable changes in the 70 years or so they've been there; growing much longer and stronger legs.

Theodosius Dobzhansky created entire new species of fruit flies in his lab through artificial selection...many, many times.

 

[Goomba]

P. Adspersus vs C. Crawshayi ......FIGHT!

 

[Stylopidae]

Other instances of evolution that most likely happened at a relatively astonishing speed.

Mites regaining the ability to sexually reproduce.

Monkeyflowers which are resistant to copper that are endemic to a mine that did not exist before the very late 1800s (copper was discovered there in 1866)

Apples were introduced to America in the 1800s. Rhagoletis pomonella is currently undergoing a sympiatric speciation event. Details

Speciation because of a parasite

Development of coloniality in response to a predation

Evolution can happen in the blink of an eye or through a hundred millenia. It all depends on what's at stake.

 

[Stylopidae]

As for the tarantulas being immune to the toxin (assuming they are), there's a few explanations.

1.) They've evolved an immunity to bufotoxin.

2.) They don't normally eat frogs

3.) Their feeding mechanism prevents the ingestion of a fatal dose of bufotoxin

4.) The toad's poison is not formulated for invertebrates, thus it has no or little effect on tarantulas.

#s 2 and 3 are the least likely, IMO.

Steve Nunn may be able to shed some light on this for us.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

they eat frogs for sure

Kermit didn’t make it ..:

P. Adspersus vs C. Crawshayi ......FIGHT!

That would be scary for both of them neither might survive..

As for the tarantulas being immune to the toxin (assuming they are), there's a few explanations.

1.) They've evolved an immunity to bufotoxin.

2.) They don't normally eat frogs

3.) Their feeding mechanism prevents the ingestion of a fatal dose of bufotoxin

4.) The toad's poison is not formulated for invertebrates, thus it has no or little effect on tarantulas.

#s 2 and 3 are the least likely, IMO.

Steve Nunn may be able to shed some light on this for us.

old thread my bad , but I’ve never Heard of anyone using frogs as feeders , I personally wouldn’t do it .
this is yet another reason to say no to wc feeders!!!