About The Spiders

Venomous spiders #8 - Loxosceles reclusa

2011-09-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Family:	Sicariidae
Genus:	Loxosceles
Specie:	L. Reclusa

Common Name: Brown Recluse spider, Violin spider.

That's it, this coin sized spider can do a great damage, never underestimate those little things. Those spiders can be found everywhere seems like a plague, many people label they as the most venomous spider in the world but they're wrong, it just bites a lot bites which make a very ugly necrosis (i found some pictures showing it), im sure you already have stepped on them so good job i hate them too and keep on doing it if you find one at your home but try to not do it if you find it somewhere that's not civilizated cause we still need them for something, now about the bite, first of all i need to tell you that they usually aren't aggressive just try to not press it against your skin or someone's skin. The initial brown recluse bite frequently is not felt and may not be immediately painful it usually become painful within 2-8 hours, pain and other local effects worsen 12 to 36 hours after the bite and the necrosis develops over next few days, Over time, the wound may grow to as large as 25 cm (10 inches) in extreme cases, the damage tissue becomes gagrenous and eventually sloughs away. There's some species of this genus that causes a lot of different symptoms, even death (that's a symptom? HAHA).

Im going off this week

2011-09-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

So, this week im going off probably no posts this week, im participating in the VII Brazilian Biosafety Congress and the First International Conference of Biosafety and Biosecurity for Latin America and Caribbean it's so fucking awesome there's english speakers that lectured and spoke about Biotechnology, i understand every single word they said im so proud of myself *-*. Tomorrow is the second day (obviously) and im gonna learn about transgenic manipulation can't wait for this, see ya!

Spider or Turtle?

2011-09-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

You're afraid of spiders? what about a turtles? lol

Venomous spiders #9 - Atrax Robustus

2011-09-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Superfamily:	Hexatheloidea
Family:	Hexathelidae
Genus:	Atrax
Specie:	A. Robustus

Common Name: Australian funnel-web spider, Sydney funnel-web spider.

This spider gives me chill, even me who love spiders. Their color range goes from blue-black to black to brown or dark-plum, the carapace is almost hairless and so looks smooth and glossy sometimes it appers like a toy but unfortunately it's not, they are very agressive when bothered, SO don't bother it if you see one of them just leave it there or call the institute of animals those spiders can be used to medicinal studies. Now, about the symptoms, at the beggining the bite can be very painful due to the acidity of the venom and the size of the of the cheliceras (fang) penetrating the skin, if substantial envenomation occurs, symptoms will occur within minutes and progress rapidly and there can be many of those symptoms like nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath (caused by airway obstruction), agitation, confusion, writhing, grimacing, muscle spasms, pulmonary oedema (of neurogenic or hypertensive origin), metabolic acidosis and extreme hypertension, The final stages of severe envenomation include dilation of the pupils (often fixed), uncontrolled generalised muscle twitching, unconsciousness, elevated intracranial pressure and death. When death occurs it is generally as a result of progressive hypotension or possibly elevated intracranial pressure consequent on cerebral oedema. The average time to onset of envenomation was 28 minutes, you can die in 15 minutes to 3 days, it depends to each to each.

PS. Copypasta something from wikipedia :P

Haplopelma Lividum

2011-09-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Theraphosidae
Genus:	Haplopelma
Species:	H. lividum

Common Name: Cobalt Blue.
Following the last post spider's genus, we got to Haplopelma lividum an awesome spider from Myanmar and Thailand, they're fast, aggressive, very poisonous and mainly it's legs are blue. Look this spider feeding by insects is cool but little vertebrates is so much cooler, watch the video at the end of the post.

Venomous spiders #10 - Haplopelma huvenum

2011-09-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Theraphosidade
Subfamily:	Ornithoctoninae
Genus:	Haplopelma

Well, i will start posting the ten most venomous spider (classified by my opinion) :P

Commom name: Chinese bird spider

This spider is very aggressive and will not regret to bite humans if disturbed, they live in the tropical rain forest of southern China and Vietnam, well far away from you =D. Its venom is very strong neurotoxin and is the subject of much toxicology research i don't know how they know it even there's not much spider's bite on human documented yet, but what is clear is the bite is frequently lethal in small doses.

Unfortunately i found only 2 pictures D=.

Trapdoor Spiders

2011-08-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Superfamily:	Ctenizoidea
Family:	Ctenizidae

Those spiders are very impressive, they construct burrows with a cork-like trapdoor made with soil, vegetation and silk, the trapdoor is difficult to see when it's closed because it's camouflage is very effective, the spider who is usually nocturnal, they wait for pray while holding on to the underside of the door, the pray is detected by vibrations and when it comes close enough the spider leaps out of its burrow to make the capture.

Lycosa sp.

2011-08-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Araneomorphae
Family:	Lycosidae
Genus:	Lycosa

Common Name: Lycosa, Wolf-spider, Garden-Spider(Brazil) or Tarantula(Brazil).

Well, I think everyone knows this spider, you can find it easily, specially if you have a ambushed garden. They are characterized by their eyes arrangement:

*NOTE: There's two more eyes behind the big ones.

The poison of these spiders are totally harmless to humans, but its bite can hurt. They make burrows, fill its wall with silk and live there for a while until they find a better place. The characteristic most impressive of wolf-spiders is the female brood care, after laying the egg, it's attached to spinnerets and carried wherever the female spider goes, a few weeks later, when the spider-lings emerge from the egg, they clamber on mother's abdomen, since there may be more than 100 spider-lings, layers are made.

CEPA - Rugendas

2011-08-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

Today is a very special day, to me at least, exactly three months ago, my colleagues and I went to a camp studying at CEPA Rugendas. Right there I found a spider, i went crazy, spent half day staring at it *-*. At first I thought it was a Lasiodora klugi, and… I thought wrong, actually it was a Grammostola acteon that some buddies helped me to identify it. So that’s it, this day made me really happy.

*NOTE: I was looking bad, actually i am pretty beautiful :P

*NOTE 2: Photos in high resolution, click to download or just open it.

Cat and Spider

2011-08-21T11:42:00.000-07:00

"It is hoped that the reader approaches the subject of spiders with as much curiosity as this cat in

this Japanese silk painting. Curiosity does not necessarily kill the cat—nor the spider.

(“Cat and Spider” by Oide Makoto, 1836–1905; The Metropolitan Museum of Art,

New York.)(FOELIX Rainer F., Biology of Spiders 3rd Edition,Oxford, 2011 )"

So, i saw that some readers have this "fear" about spiders, I don’t know, probably is because you were warned that they are dangerous and blablabla, but it’s not that it seems to be, of course there’s the dangerous ones, but most of them are inoffensive to humans and, some of them can be domesticated. Or, just because you think they’re ugly, maybe, some species look ugly in some way and other species can be beautiful in another way.

I will talk about venomous spiders and how you can raise them soon, for now i hope you keep reading my blog, and lose that “fear”.

How does a spider grows up?

2011-08-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well, spiders don't grow like us, because they're arthropods. =D They have a exoskeleton, that's exchanged from time to time, thus allowing the spider to keep growing, this process is called Ecdysis (or "molt"), and yes, it's for all the arthropods. You may be asking, "so?". It's a awesome process, keep reading and you won't regret.

It all start when the exoskeleton starts to be tight, then the spider becomes inactive for a period of time (like a week or two), after this time it makes a thin "bed" of silk and lies upside down on it:

After lie, it start the process,the exoskeleton is opened by its prosoma ("head" or cephalothorax)and most of times the abdomen is ripped:

and for two hours long this happens:

After this, it becomes whitish and walks a little weird because the new exoskeleton is not hard as the old one, but it takes a short time to back to normal:

The old exoskeleton:

*NOTE: The circle indicates the spermatheca, that i'll talk about in another post.

That's it, more photos:
*WATCH the videos!!!!

Avicularia Metallica

2011-08-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Theraphosidae
Subfamily:	Aviculariinae
Genus:	Avicularia
Species:	A. metallica

Common Name: Pinktoe
It's characterized by it's urticating hair that is metallic color, and produces a lot of silk.

Pterinochilus Murinus

2011-08-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Scientific Classification:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Arachnida
Order:	Araneae
Suborder:	Mygalomorphae
Family:	Theraphosidae
Subfamily:	Harpactirinae
Genus:	Pternochilus
Species:	P. murinus

Common Name: Usambara Orange Starbust Baboon (From Africa)
It's a very interesting spider, it moves fast, have a strong venom, is very aggressive and mainly the distinct feature, it's color.