The worlds most venomous spider? End-all-be-all-topic.

[Crotalus]

Im not separating humans from humanity since humans do belong to humanity...
There are allways a number of things to consider, nothing is all black and white. The russelli vs taipan was therefor a very good example of what im talking about.

There are 30 somewhat species of funnelwebs in Australia, most of them never or rarley come in contact with people. Such as H. infensa, it regarded as the most toxic of all, but never killed anyone.
Atrax on the other hand is found in Sydney and have killed atleast 13 before serum was developed. So theres another perfect example that closeness to humans are very important.

A nuke on Mars is preferable to a 9mm aimed to my face. What do you really think possess the most danger?

/Lelle

 

[Venom]

A nuke on Mars is preferable to a 9mm aimed to my face. What do you really think possess the most danger?

This is where we are talking at cross purposes. You are defining danger situationally, and I am doing so objectively ( i.e. -- in absolute terms): if you have a pistol pointed in your face, and the nuke is on Mars, the nuke is still the more powerful weapon. If you have a black widow crawling on your neck, and the funnelweb is 1000 miles away, the funnelweb is still a more dangerous spider. That is what I mean when I say how "dangerous" an object or animal is: how dangerous an animal is in and of itself, based purely on its physical characteristics, and not what situation it happens to be in relative to people. With the widow on your neck, you are in more situational danger from the widow than you are from the f-web, but the f-web is still a more dangerous spider than a widow.

 

[Galapoheros]

I only read part of this page (page 10). I looked at the original question for a while and I think I realized where the ambiguity is coming from. There are no degrees of an animal being venomous. It either is or isn't. That has left the question open to interpretation. So you are going to have different answers because people are going to interpret the question in different ways. So the opinions are from different questions! There are degrees of venom toxicity. I think that would be easily done in a lab. But then you have to consider how each reacts to the venom. Then you can ask the question considering which is most dangerous. Then you have to consider venom dosage, defensive disposition, contact with human population, etc. Degrees of toxicity would be simple. Take an equal dose of each venomous spider. Which would make more humans sick or even kill them? Even then, is the question asking which spider bite would make people very sick or would be likely to kill them. I believe some spider bites would make you wish you were dead but not kill you. Which spider is most dangerous to human life would be easy... I think. You would just have to look at statistics. Even then, there are different concentrations of people living together all over the world. And that can change too. But you would find the most deadly spider with statistics. I think the original question needs to be more specific. But then you wouldn't get people fired up! Hahahaha! Sorry if my opinion is already in the thread. I've been getting really lazy lately.

 

[Crotalus]

This is where we are talking at cross purposes. You are defining danger situationally, and I am doing so objectively ( i.e. -- in absolute terms): if you have a pistol pointed in your face, and the nuke is on Mars, the nuke is still the more powerful weapon. If you have a black widow crawling on your neck, and the funnelweb is 1000 miles away, the funnelweb is still a more dangerous spider. That is what I mean when I say how "dangerous" an object or animal is: how dangerous an animal is in and of itself, based purely on its physical characteristics, and not what situation it happens to be in relative to people. With the widow on your neck, you are in more situational danger from the widow than you are from the f-web, but the f-web is still a more dangerous spider than a widow.

Its a danger situation (confrontation with a human) that we must consider when even trying to evaluate the danger these animals possess. Othervise its even more pointless.

 

[Jack_F]

Replying to the original question...

1. L. mactans

2. Hadronyche cerberea. Hadronyche infensa has the most toxic venom of funnelwebs but injects very little of it. Hadronyche infensa has a severe envenomation rate of 14%. IMO Hadronyche cerberea has the best of both worlds. It produces an extremely toxic venom and enough of it to cause a lot of trouble. It's severe envenomation rate is an amazing 75%!!!

3. Some sp. of wandering spider.

4. Brown recluse.

Jack

 

[Nich]

Im not fluent w/ species....but i remember hearing that the venom of the sydney funnel web (and maybe others) is targeted towards affecting primates.

 

[Stylopidae]

Apparrently, it's harmless to dogs and rabbits.