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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2005 : 08:45:54
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..... in the wonderful book of Arachnia. Vampire (of sorts) jumping spiders have been discovered!
quote:
African Spider Craves Human Blood, Scientists Find
James Owen
for National Geographic News
October 11, 2005
Scientists have discovered a spider in East Africa with a craving for human blood.
They say the spider, which hunts blood-sucking female mosquitoes, is the only animal known to select its prey based on what the prey has eaten.
The spider is the also first known predator that deliberately feeds on vertebrate blood by eating mosquitoes.
To those who know a little about spiders, this comes as not too much of a suprise. Spiders are well known for unique feeding practices. I myself once found a wolf spider feeding upon a captured tree frog that weighed considerably more than it. And a friend who raised taratulas semi-commercially used to 'borrow' a thawed mouse or two from me when he had a new litter. The spiderlings would swarm over it and feed greedly. It cut down on the sibling canniblism so common in arachnids.
Some spiders catch fish and others cast nets, so why not a species evolved to specalize in plump, succulent, female mosquitos? Mmmmm -- yum!
At this point however, I must take the statement that they prefer human blood to other mammal's, not to mention reptile's, with a little dab of salt.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2005 : 08:52:34 [Permalink]
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Consider the source, NG panders to the psuedo-scientific crowd nowadays. No doubt they will put the spider on the cover with a line which misleads such as: Vampire spider only feasts on human blood!
Reminds me of the study which showed that mosquitos are more inclinded to bite someone with malaria than someone without it, the disease makes the person give off a more delicious aroma or something. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Espritch
Skeptic Friend
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2005 : 23:40:36 [Permalink]
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| Interesting, but the story didn't really make it clear if the spider were particular about human blood or if they would eat misquitoes engored with any type of blood. They were using misquitoes feed on human blood in the tests but that doesn't show that the spiders are particular about the source of the blood. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2005 : 03:04:19 [Permalink]
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Yeh, that's pretty much the way I read it.
More and more, it seems, NG is indulging in what I think of as 'pop science'. Given the choice of a solid story and a little sensationalism, they sometimes tend to lean a bit toward the latter. Might be they are trying to grab the tabloid readers and those whom we all know that fear being attacked by any and all wildlife.
And it must be remembered that they are not a scientific journal.
It stands to reason that the spider will happily settle for any engorged mosquito that happens into it's attack range.
I love jumping spiders, and have spent a lot of time observing them (wasting time bug-watching when I was supposed to be doing something else, mostly). Their attack strategy is very fast and highly effecent. I have seen them do a trapeze act of sorts. They attach a strand of web to a verticle base such as a window screen and, when the opportunity presents itself, then leap out and snag a flying insect -- wing-shooting, as it were -- and then swing back onto the base.
When it comes to arachnids in general and spiders in paticular, it is no longer easy to suprise me. They are marvelously weird.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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