Dungeons and .. Spiders

mvw writes: " This article is about yet unidentified species of poisonous spiders .. found by British Telecom technicians beneath Queen Elisabeth's Windsor castle!"

Comments

Technically, not poisonous

[PD]

Spiders aren't poisonous. They are venemous. A poisonous animal would be something that causes illness from contact, or by ingesting it, such as those odd frogs and toads that emit a toxic slime from their bodies.

A venemous animal, like a spider or a rattlesnake, has a bite or other means of delivering a toxin to their target.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, all spiders are venemous. It goes with the territory. Saying that a new species of venemous spider has been found is like saying that a new species of fish that lives in water has been found.

Re:Technically, not poisonous

[boarder]

Just because dictionary.com says poisonous is synonymous with venomous, doesn't mean it is. They also list as synonyms for poison: virus and bane. Those are specific uses of the word and not the one necessarily intended. They list venomous as a synonym for poisonous as it pertains to venomous jealousy or words.

The original post is correct. I have spent many years in the field of amateur herpetology (study of reptiles/amphibians) and know that, in the scientific community, we say venom is injected and poison is injested.

From Dictionary.com listing of "poison":
Usage: Poison, Venom. Poison usually denotes something received into the system by the mouth, breath, etc. Venom is something discharged from animals and received by means of a wound, as by the bite or sting of serpents, scorpions, etc. Hence, venom specifically implies some malignity of nature or purpose.

good reporting

[boarder]

My favorite quote:
"There are about 50,000 species of spider worldwide, only six of which are known to be poisonous."

ALL spiders are venomous, but only a few are dangerous to humans. Note: Daddy Long-Legs and Harvester spiders are NOT spiders and are not, contrary to popular opinion, venomous. Maybe there are six species that are harmful or fatal if swallowed.

It's not me, but not necessarily them.

[boarder]

I said "dictionary.com" isn't necessarily correct; I never said that all dictionaries aren't. Besides, have you read some dictionary entries? Slang terms don't always mean what the dictionary says. Scientific jargon doesn't always mean the same thing the dictionary says (some dictionaries are more abridged than others); they have dictionaries specifically for scientific terms (which would've been a better place to look up venomous and poisonous). Look at the definition of "stress." Stress is an applied force on a body. Depending on the physical properties of the material it should CAUSE strain (a non-dimensional factor that describes the internal forces on the body caused by deformation). Some dictionaries list strain as a synonym for stress. In structural mechanics, this is absolutely FALSE. A body can be under strain without any stress.

If the "dictionary" was the definitive authority on the meaning of a word, there would only be the need for one dictionary. Every dictionary you read has a slightly different definition for the same word. Which is right? They all mean basically the same thing, but some use different examples to get their point across. A dictionary also isn't as precise with its meanings either; they intentionally give more general definitions so that a greater number of people will be able to understand the basic idea of the word. Another case in point is poisonous and pestilent. A pestilent is not necessarily a poison. It can be but is only truly synonymous with poisonous in the "socially/morally/politically harmful" definition.

not necessarily

[boarder]

Actually, just because you eat a venomous creature, you won't necessarily become sick (or even get the dose). Venom has to be injected into the blood stream (well, I know hemotoxins do but I'm not sure about neurotoxins, they might have to have contact with the nervous system; I'm not that knowledgable about that aspect of venom). Eating something won't always put stuff in your blood stream. The venom might get altered from digestion; it might not get digested at all and pass right through your body.

Important case in point:
King snakes' (non-venomous) prey on and eat the rattlesnake (highly venomous). They aren't immune to the bite of the rattler; but, if they kill and eat the rattler without being bitten, they are just fine. So, venomous != poisonous.

Oh Come On...

[pubudu]

Graham Smith, a member of Project-ARK conservation team which aims to preserve endangered species, warned that the spiders could attack.

"The species is certainly venomous and the jaws are strong enough to penetrate the human skin."

Really now, it's almost as if he wants to sound like some scientist from a MST3K reject. A concerned "member of the scientific community" warns that, though there might be some danger to humankind, and though they could theoretically "attack" at any moment, he is part of a group dedicated to preserving and understanding this facinating new species. And besides, fumigation wouldn't work anyway. I'll bet he even has a cool line like "beautiful creatures" already made up so he can stoically meet his death when they turn on him, despite his personal responsibility in preventing their extinction by sabotaging the heroes' attempt to lure them into a trap using super-strong queen spider pheromones...