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.