Author: Tianya loves science
On September 26, a cleaner at the Duston School in Northampton, England, found a spider while cleaning, and after the school viewed it, it immediately announced the suspension of classes and the emergency evacuation of students.
It turned out that this was a fake widow spider (fasle widow), considered the most poisonous spider in the UK, once bitten by it, it would cause severe pain, the wound quickly deteriorated, the muscles were red, swollen, ulcerated, if not treated in time, it could lead to amputation or even death.
The false widow spider is named because of its resemblance to the famous Black Widow spider in the United Kingdom, which belongs to the same family of bulbous spiders, but is more poisonous.
The black widow spider's venom is already frightening, and it is considered one of the most poisonous spiders in the world, named after the female spiders that eat the male spider after mating. The female spider of the Black Widow Spider is average 4 cm long and has a brightly colored red funnel symbol on its abdomen. In contrast, the male is much smaller, only about half the size of the female.
Every time he mates, the male must be careful to climb on the female's body, and if he does not want to become a ghost after the event, he must flee quickly. Most of the male spiders that are still intoxicated by the gentle countryside have become one "dead husband" after another of the female spiders, and this spider is worthy of the name Black Widow.
Black Widow Spider
The black widow spider is an extremely strong neurotoxin, and its LD50 (the smallest dose that can cause more than half of the subjects to die, that is, half of the lethal amount, in milligrams per kilogram) is 0.9, which has surpassed the five-step snake (2.94) and the bamboo leaf green snake (1.2). If a person is bitten by a black widow, in addition to severe pain, it will also produce severe muscle spasms, and sometimes temporary spinal cord or cerebral palsy, but because the dose is not large, it will rarely cause death, but it is still a greater threat to children or people with weak constitutions.
It should be pointed out that the black widow spider has a wide distribution in the world, and in China, it mainly lives in the Hainan region, and in July 2020, researchers found three black widow spiders (3 females, 1 of which has 2 egg sacs) in the branches and leaves of a shopping mall landscape tree in Sanya, Hainan.
In contrast, the false widow spider is even more chilling, it is much smaller than the black widow spider, but it is much more poisonous, the most poisonous of the twelve species of biting spiders in Britain, known as the noble false widow. False widow spiders range in female size from 0.95 cm to 1.4 cm, and males are smaller, only 0.7 cm to 1.1 cm. Unlike other spiders, false widow spiders are particularly fond of actively attacking people, especially females, when they are in the breeding season in the summer, and are more poisonous. In one unconfirmed case, in October 2014, an Irish man who allegedly had a cardiac arrest in an intensive care unit for a day before surviving a continuous bite on his buttocks, ribs and shoulders by a false widow spider survived.
In Britain, the number of spider species and numbers is rare in the world. Every year in July and August, a large number of different species of spiders will haunt the grass and woods around the house, and some of them will burrow into the house. There is a rumor in the UK that an Englishman will swallow an average of 8 spiders a year while sleeping. When Chinese students teach experience to newcomers, they also remind everyone not to live on the 1st floor, and it is best to learn more about what kind of living habits the landlord has, because it is important to have a diligent landlord, and the diligent landlord will often clean up, including cleaning the spider silk.
Why are there so many spiders in the UK? According to the analysis, this is likely to be related to the climate of the United Kingdom. Surrounded by the sea on all sides, the United Kingdom has a temperate oceanic climate, rainy and wet all year round, which is simply a paradise for spiders. Every year in September and October, when the weather turns cold, spiders will find ways to drill into the house to keep warm, so September and October in the United Kingdom are often called "spider season". When people find that there are more spiders in the house, they know that the "spider season" has arrived.
Brazilian wandering spider
Realistically, spiders are actually beneficial creatures. Because its diet is mainly based on insects, it can help people eliminate a large number of harmful insects. The venom of some spiders has great research value in pharmacy. Black Widow's venom is very valuable, and in the American market, an ounce of at least $2.3 million is arguably a thousand times more expensive than gold.
The Brazilian wandering spider, which is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most poisonous spider, in addition to causing death in the poisoned person, has another symptom that the poisoned person's penis will continue to erect for hours or even days. Some male poisoners say their sexual quality of life improves significantly when these symptoms of poisoning subside, but studies have shown that if treatment is not timely, it can also be permanent impotence.
Scientists in the United States and Brazil claim that they have broken down a compound called "PnTx2-6" from the venom of the wandering spider, which is called "Viagra in nature" and is much more effective than similar drugs currently on the market.
In fact, Northampton Duston School is not the first school to be suspended for spiders, it is the second school to be forced to close for the discovery of spiders in two weeks. In the UK, school closures due to spiders occur almost every year. According to statistics, in October 2018, in less than half a month, as many as 7 schools in London alone were forced to close.