In Texas, No Less!

[Colin D Wilson]

James..
whilst trying to "key out" the centipede that Shane bought at Newark i eventually got to the point of having to look for pictures to confirm colours etc.
I googled Scolopendra morsitans and in the first dozen or so images was a picture of a mans chest, with quite severe lesions and what looked like bruising, being inquisitive i had a look and found that the bloke had died from "A Case of Mortal Necrotizing Fasciitis of the Trunk Resulting From a Centipede (Scolopendra moritans) Bite"

The pictures not that bad, but so it doesn't upset anyone with a sensitive nature i won't post it directly and people can follow it if they wish to do so.
here's the link to the whole publication.

http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijem/vol2n2/centipede.xml

[James Box]

haha, won't look at that at work, i think...
in the meantime, just be sure the little fellow can't escape
however, i haven't heard of any centi's being on the DWA list, and one would expect them to be there, if they were the direct cause of death in such a brutal fashion... i suppose we must thank our lucky stars that "the man" hasn't found out about or noticed centi's yet!
though i'm still annoyed about their approach to scorpions.

however, think it makes sense that in the case of any bite, one can get severe infections or develop something like gangrene from the untended wound.
considering that the severity of the venom of the aforementioned hobo spider is actually in doubt, and its results are said to be necrotic, it may be the same case with something like a pede or tarantula, ie bacteria already present, some sort of flesh-eating strain that isn't easily detectable, activated or allowed free rein through the wound or the effects of the venom.
...must actually do some reading on this subject! don't want to find out the hard way how nasty infected bites can be like you did with the P cavimanus!
or possibly this unfortunate chap!

[Peter Lacey]

I'm glad you picked up on that Stan because it puzzled me but I thought there must be an simple explanation. Urti bristles in OW? (excuse me whilst I scatch my chin).
That NF doesn't look to clever either, and I'm a little bemused by the google ad:

Necrotizing Fasciitis and more! eBay.co.uk: Grab a bargain today.

[James Box]

ROFLMAO, think i'll definitely go and get a bargain on necrotizing fasciitis while i can! and Christmas right around the corner too.

[James Box]

Colin, you may have less reason to fear. that trader listed the species as Hemoscolopendes sp. so not the scary one you looked up, and hopefully nowhere near as venomous.

[Colin D Wilson]

Do you mean the trader at the show?
If so i didn't see any reference to Hemiscolopendra on any of the tubs.

[James Box]

yeh, the guy from the show.
www.martingoss.co.uk
i quite like his site, he has alot of varied inverts.
i may be wrong, but i was going by his recent stock link. that seems to have much of what he traded at the show, and after doing a quick search for Scolopendra morsitans, the image looked similar to that for some of the Hemoscolopendra sp.
but of course that goes out the window if they labelled yours S morsitans, and it would just indicate they actually sold all their stock before updating the list on the site.
but in any case, always good to have a strong lid on these babies!

suppose we're getting a bit off topic now, though.
to me, this case sounds like blatant mis-diagnosis of some spider bite. am i wrong in thinking that the use of the word "tarantula" to describe the Theraphosids was at the time recent enough that a doctor could be mistaken?

[Colin D Wilson]

just keeping off topic for one more post, SORRY!!

he has the species that Shane bought as "Blue Stripy Legged Centipede (Ex Malawi)" on his site and has "unknown sp" in the scientific name column.
Its scolopendra morsitans by my reckoning.

Anyway the name tarantula is recorded back from the middle ages in europe, originally from the town of Taranto where they danced the tarantella to sweat out the effects of a large spider bite (normally blamed on Lycosa tarantula but was more than likely to have been a european Lactrodectus sp.)
i would imagine the name tarantula would have been in common use in America soon after this time due to visiting traders from europe or other countries that accepted the word into everyday usage.

[James Box]

ah right, think he told me the centi's were from someone else, and he said he didn't know all that much about them, so entirely possible he didn't know the species!
well, keep the lid on, don't blow on it, and just chuck food in once in a while and run haha!
you want an Ethmostigmus triginopodus (and so do i, again)...just shy, not that aggressive.

anyways, back on topic we go!
yes, i heard about that origin of the word tarantula, which is humourous because apparently the church used to frown on dancing, and so people would sometimes blame the spiders if they were caught seems hard to believe though!
so it does make sense that any time a large spider was seen, people would call it a tarantula and run a mile to avoid its "deadly" bite.

[Colin D Wilson]

just checked that on the net and well.......now i'm not so sure about what we have, apparently trigonopodus is sold (mis id'd) as morsitans.
I'll have to wait untill it comes out of its burrow and check the spiracles for banding.

[James Box]

oh man, i'm full of envy if you've got an E trigonopodus! mine died FAR too soon after i got it, and it was my first pede. very attractively marked, and not that bad a temperament. no idea of bite potency, as i didn't mean to get that close hehe
i bought mine off Lee, though.

[Louise~Nichols]

I'm glad you picked up on that Stan because it puzzled me but I thought there must be an simple explanation. Urti bristles in OW? (excuse me whilst I scatch my chin).
That NF doesn't look to clever either, and I'm a little bemused by the google ad:

Necrotizing Fasciitis and more! eBay.co.uk: Grab a bargain today.

Peter...urticarial rash doesn't necessarily mean urti-bristles on an OW....urticaria is a medical term for what is termed *nettle rash* or hives; the lumps and bumps that arise from histamine production following allergic stimuli in susceptible candidates.

Stanley...hello again! I enjoyed your response, particularly on the score of another culprit or culprits being involved.
My mind wandered further on bacterial causes of death, and more interestingly...I found another eight legged killer but not a tarantula. I'll get to this in a minute!
I looked up a number of things...tetanus (which is found in soil), botulism (types A & B also in soil)...both of these could have got into the victim's system either from an initial bite, or an existent wound being exposed to contamination. Neither of these illnesses were being properly investigated until the late 1800's, and the method of staining to test for Gram positive or negative bacteria (such as C.Tetani, which can show both results depending on maturity of culture) wasn't pioneered until 1908 I think.
But...then I found an article on Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever...or Black Measles as it had been called, which is caused by the deer tick...apparently being male and under 15 would significantly increase your chances of death. So that has become my latest abstract addition on a possible cause of death for the young man in your original news link....the irony was that the chap (Howard Ricketts) who identified this illness then went on to die from typhus some years later!

(I also found a Texas in Australia...but then I couldn't find any newspaper that bore anything resembling the same name.)

Other than that...reported problems with spidey bites...I'll ramble about those another time...I've had medical treatment following a bite and it took 18 months for my ankle to heal, and I still have a deep scar now.

[Peter Lacey]

Peter...urticarial rash doesn't necessarily mean urti-bristles on an OW....urticaria is a medical term for what is termed *nettle rash* or hives; the lumps and bumps that arise from histamine production following allergic stimuli in susceptible candidates.

Thanks Louise, I was rather confused but felt assured someone would shed light.
I like the info on soil harbouring bacteria too, most interesting and easy to come to the conclusion of "Death by Tarantula".
I feel pretty certain we're talking Ontario, Canada here. The multiple references to the Rev, the newspaper names, Fraser clan emigration and associated Scottish nameplaces, Highland clearances resulting in a large proportion of Scots to Ontario, and wiki's "estimate for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has 25,000 Gaelic-speaking Scots arriving as immigrants between 1775 and 1850" all fits in nicely. In contrast the emigration to Australia is much lower, perhaps because it was considered a punishment for criminals. You can find out lots more on emigration to both countries via the National Archives of Scotland: http://www.nas.gov.uk/default.asp
What I've not found much info on is the lad in question, Alexander Fraser, not in Canadian, Texan or Australian genealogy.
As for the centi's, well I think these are fascinating creates but totally not my bag! now reconfirmed

[Peter Lacey]

yeh, the guy from the show.
www.martingoss.co.uk
i quite like his site, he has alot of varied inverts.

woo hoo, thanks so much for this link. It's walking distance from where I live, I want to visit now!
mmm! 1.38am, maybe not, but I got to contact.

[Louise~Nichols]

The Latin Conspiracy....

You're welcome Peter. You seem to be managing to tie-up the loose ends of the newspaper origins too, even if the young Fraser is proving somewhat elusive!

And here's something else I found on my searches...nope, it's not related to this subject...but I've just had the best giggle in quite some time.

http://atshq.org/articles/stanholycow.pdf

So...I'd like to ask Stanley: do you ever plan to write a brightly coloured, simple picture book with pop-up pages for *unwilling* readers?!! Preferably made of thick cardboard so they can teethe on the corners...*S is for Spider...Ooh looky, and here is Mrs Hairy Smith, shall we see her home?* hehehe
Sir, you get a standing ovation for your razor wits and brilliant commentary insertions, I couldn't breathe for laughing!