AN INTERESTING QUESTION

[Carl Portman]

I was talking to a colleague who studied zoology in his youth about (in this case) the Poecilotheria genus and on reply to the question "Are they dangerous?" I answered that they are indeed capable of hospitalising a person. My friend enquired why they, and others were not therefore on the Dangerous Wild Animals list. To be fair, I felt unable to answer his question with any authority and thought I would therefore share it with the BTS fraternity to see what the thinking is?

Now I find myself asking why Poecilotheria and perhaps Stromatopelma or Heteroscodra amongst many others are not on the list. I can only assume that tests have been conducted on the toxicity of the venom and they concluded that they were not of a sufficient 'Ld' to warrant inclusion.

Anyway folks, I throw this question open for debate.

[Richard Gallon]

Hi Carl,
I think the venom of Stromatopelma was studied in France and the venom of Pterinochilus murinus in Germany. Presumably when the original DWA list was complied these weren't considered HOT enough to warrent inclusion. They certainly aren't in the same league as Phoneutria, Parabuthus, Loxoscelus et al.

I suspect the list was complied, in part, using information gathered from tropical countries. Poecilotheria, Pterinochilus, Heteroscodra and Stromatopelma are all closely associated with agriculture (palms & bananas), so bites to workers will be common (but clearly not medically significant enough to be worthy of note).

A bite from any of those theraphosids is going to hurt like hell, but let's be honest, it ain't going to kill you (unless you're allergic). We probably over-egg the allergy clause - you don't here of people trying to ban peanuts because a small number of people die from them? Common sense would dictate that you don't keep theraphosids if you have a known allergy to stings etc. (just as you wouldn't have a bee hive in the back garden).

If those theraphosids ever make it onto DWA it'll be an expensive day for me But I doubt they will - they just aren't HOT enough

Richard

[kap]

Hi Carl,
I think the venom of Stromatopelma was studied in France and the venom of Pterinochilus murinus in Germany.

Hi,

Yes the Stromatopelma venom was studied in France and from what I know, the results of this study did not concluded that this venom was lethal.
The well known french scientific who studied it was even biten by one of this species but did not feel bad effects on her health (she think it was a dry bite, without venom).
Nevertheless, in this examination of the venom, it was also another way for determinating different species (calceatum and griseipes) by measuring the molecules masses ("spectrométrie de masse" in french).

French scientifics look more worried regarding the urticans effects of tarantulas hairs. They could cause very serious injury to eyes, even after stoping the breeding of tarantulas for several years (one death was officially noticed in this preceid case).

[kap]

Sorry, correction of my previous post :
"one death was officially noticed in this precise case".

Amendment : the complete loose of the eye was noticed (instead of "one death was officially noticed" !!!)

[mesomelas]

what warrants inclusion on DWA lists? is it venomous animals or animals that prove fatal to mankind? (if that makes any sense.....)