For the past month we've been sharing our cabana with a large arachnid, espousing the philosophy of live and let live. We figured that if she had grown to this size we may as well let her live a little longer, so we mostly just ignored her. Sometimes we'd see her in the bathroom, sometimes by the front door, and one night she was perched on the nightstand about a foot away from my ear.
Then for a little amusement I emailed a photo of it to a friend who did some research on the web and sent us some alarming news. Apparently this looks like the species called phoneutria which in Greek means "murderess." It is also known as a wandering spider, and we learned that in 2007 these spiders appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most venomous animal in the world! There are around 39 different species of it. And they are known for being shipped on banana boats (despite sounding like an urban legend).
At spiderzrule.com we learned this: "These spiders are extremely fast, extremely venomous, and extremely aggressive and are ranked among the most venomous spiders known to man. In fact, the Brazilian Wandering Spider is the most venomous spider in the New World!"Sweet dreams and Happy Halloween.
2 comments:
That is the best spider story I've ever heard.
Whilst an 'enjoyable' story, i fear the worst happened to it because you feared it was dangerous. Much like a little knowledge, which is also a dangerous thing. This spider is infact Cupiennius salei, a harmless relative of brazilian wandering spiders. Naturally, C. salei are found in SE Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. These are often mistaken for Phoneutria, and hence needlessly killed. But, any spider hitchiking on boats should be removed otherwise you needlessly spread potentially invasive species to new places, such as islands where the delicate balance of native species can be devastated by new introductions
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