In the subconscious of many people, putting the spider and the snake together, the spider will surely become the prey of the snake and eventually be swallowed by the snake. But what many people don't know is that there is also a creature called a red-backed spider in the world, which can even kill the world's second most poisonous snake, and after humans are bitten by red-backed spiders, they can't live for more than half an hour, and the damage is explosive.
So why is it that spiders, creatures that look like they die at a snap, can even be killed by poisonous snakes? How fierce is the venom of the red-backed spider?
The red-backed spider and the world's second venomous snake
The deadly red-backed spider, whose full name should be called the Australian red-backed spider, is also known as the Black Widow Spider and the Coffin Spider. It mainly lives in the Australian region, and later because some people like to raise poisonous spiders, they were introduced from Australia, so they can also see the red-backed spider around the world!
Of all the creatures in the world, the male red-backed spider has taken the word "dedication to love" to the extreme. In order to reproduce, they will use their bodies as food for female red-backed spiders to eat at the expense of their bodies, while mating with female red-backed spiders and trying to leave their genes. Because mating is carried out at the cost of life, many male red-backed spiders have a lifespan of only six or seven months, while female red-backed spiders can survive for two or three years.
The body of the red-backed spider is very petite, the length is less than 1 cm, but its damage is bursting, just a small bite, after five minutes, people can feel the wound in the fever and pain, if not immediately treated, the use of serum to remove the red-backed spider toxin, half an hour later, the person will be bitten by the red-backed spider and die.
Perhaps because the red-backed spider is too scary to hurt, many people smell the spider discoloration and avoid it, so it curbs the occurrence of the red-backed spider poisoning and death! Therefore, in the existing records, there is only one case of death caused by a red-backed spider.
Known as the world's second most venomous snake, it is the eastern brown snake, also known as the eastern cobra, which is extremely aggressive, and it lives mainly in Australia like the red-backed spider. As the saying goes, "one drum, then decline, three and exhaustion", the eastern brown snake's perseverance is very strong, when attacking the prey, even if the attack fails, but the more courageous it is!
The eastern brown snake is considered to be the second most venomous snake in the world, mainly because in australia, the eastern brown snake is the most lethal, and in all snake incidents, the eastern brown snake attacks the most people to death! Even a juvenile small eastern brown snake has enough ability to kill a human.
And the eastern brown snake not only contains high venom, but also has an ingredient in its venom that prevents blood from clotting. Therefore, after being bitten by an eastern brown snake, it will often bleed more than once, and there is even a risk of heavy bleeding!
Having never really seen the hurtfulness of the red-backed spider, many people may not believe that the red-backed spider can kill the world's second most venomous snake. But a Brisbane snake catcher has said it's possible for a red-backed spider to kill an eastern brown snake. One of the "fangs" of the red-backed spider is α- α-latrotoxin, which is quickly lost in vitality by any prey after being ingested into the body of the prey, and eventually has to be captured.
In addition, a man named Robin McLennan once showed a set of photos of snake spider wars on social networking sites. The battle in the photo is quite fierce, the red-backed spider uses its petite size to kill a young eastern brown snake, and finally uses its own spider web to bundle the snake and hang it in mid-air! Spiders and snakes are not twice as small as they are, but they are the final victors, which makes many people unbelievable. But in the world, there are thousands of creatures, even the smallest individuals, they have their own killer skills!
So, in this world, in addition to the eastern brown snake and the red-backed spider, what other creatures are highly venomous? How harmful are they?
The poison of the world
There are actually thousands of poisonous creatures in the world, countless, even if the mosquitoes are one shot, they are actually poisonous creatures. Among the tens of millions of poisons in the world, the red-backed spider known as the Black Widow is not a particularly powerful poison. Before it, there were many powerful poisons.
First of all, there are pufferfish. Puffer fish is extremely delicious, with the title of "king of fish", in ancient times, people often risked death to taste the delicacy of puffer fish. Today, when some places eat puffer fish, they must also sign a life and death agreement to taste it. There is a "tetrodotoxin" in the body of the puffer fish, which is a well-known highly toxic poison that can harm the nerves after poisoning.
Cyanide in chemistry can kill a little, and a pufferfish contains more than a thousand times more toxins than cyanide, so the damage it can cause can be imagined!
The second is the poison dart frog, which is one of the most toxic species in the world, and even has the saying that it is dead at the touch. Because there are many varieties of poison dart frogs, and their toxins are obtained by eating other poisonous organisms, the toxins of poison dart frogs are different. However, among the many poison dart frogs, the poison dart frog that obtained the koko frog toxin is the most terrifying, as long as it shoots 0.0003 grams of venom, it can kill an adult!
Finally, there is the poisonous scorpion, which contains 12-14 sharp spines on its back, and when it is disturbed, it will not hesitate to attack, piercing the skin of the opponent with a sharp back and quickly releasing toxins. After the unfortunate person is recruited, there will be muscle weakness and temporary paralysis!
Although many animals in the world have poisons, and even these poisons will endanger the safety of human life, but everything in the world is relative, and sometimes animal toxins can also promote the development of the current medical cause. So, what are the achievements of animal toxins in the medical field?
Animal toxin drug research
You may not believe it, animal toxins are actually medicated, and it is very helpful to humans, for example, the sea snake with strong aggression in the water, its venom has the function of enhancing memory! The saliva of scorpion lizards can help humans treat metabolic disorders. There are even animal toxins that have anti-cancer effects!
Animal toxins are both poison and medicine. After understanding the disease mechanism and the structure of animal toxins, people can use animal toxins to inhibit or activate the body's own regulatory mechanisms. At the same time, animal toxins can also be used to remove some excess substances in the human body, such as the use of antimicrobial peptides to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms, the use of tumor cell-specific polypeptides to inhibit tumor cell growth.
Animal toxins are mainly used most in pharmacology. Through experimental research, animal toxins are applied to various factors, systems and channels in the blood system. It can not only destroy harmful microorganisms in the body, but also play a strong sanitize role in bacteria and fungi in the body.
Most of the drugs made from animal toxins are peptide drugs. After 2015, there are more than 60 kinds of peptide drugs produced from animal toxins on the market, and many drugs made of animal toxins are still in the clinical stage.
Because the drugs made of animal toxins really benefit human beings, even if the toxins of many animals are harmful, they cannot break the tenacious research spirit of human beings, so humans have been insisting on the study of animal toxins. In the future, it is believed that there will be more drugs made of animal toxins that can serve humans.
Bibliography:
Research progress on animal toxins and related drugs. LV Qiumin; LAI Ling. Advances in Pharmacy.2015-12-25
Animal toxins are also medicated. WU Yuemei. Science Public (Middle School Students) 2016-09-15
Author: Si Wei Proofreader: Xiao Wan