Interestingly, the snakes captured by spiders also encompasses some species from the families Elapidae and Viperidae known to be highly toxic to humans and other vertebrates. The use of vertebrates as a supplementary food source by spiders represents an opportunity to enlarge their food base, resulting in enhanced survival capability. 1837) equipped with a very potent vertebrate-specific toxin (-latrotoxin) have proven to be expert snake catchers. and four species of North American widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus C.L. an Israeli widow spider (Latrodectus revivensis Shulov. the African button spider (Latrodectus indistinctus O. Especially the Australian redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti Thorell. About 60% of the reported incidents were attributable to theridiids ( 0.6-1.1 cm body length), a spider family that uses strong tangle webs for prey capture. Altogether 90 snake species from seven families have been documented to be captured by 40 spider species from 11 families. The captured snakes are predominantly small-sized with an average body length of 25.9 1.3 cm (median = 27 cm: range: 5.8 100 cm). Snake predation by spiders has been most frequently documented in USA (51% of all incidents) and Australia (29%). Snake-catching spiders have been documented from all continents except Antarctica. 319 incidents of snake predation by spiders arc reported based on a comprehensive global literature and social media survey.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |