Australia is a country where a modern person who does not know her jungle and deserts can only survive in the city, but this is not a fact. There is so much living creature that is dangerous to humans that the country can be entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
Here is the largest number of poisonous snakes on the planet, and in the waters of the ocean you can encounter a deadly blue-ringed octopus, whose bite causes death, and huge cuttlefish, arranging mating games off the coast.
Famous Australian spiders the size of a plate or running at a speed of a meter per second are ordinary "guests" of the houses and cars of local residents.
Australia's top three most dangerous spiders
Although the death of a spider bite in the country was last recorded in the 80s of the XX century, fear of them is transmitted from generation to generation. In this country, children from an early age begin to get acquainted with animals, insects, reptiles and inhabitants of the ocean, which can harm their health or even kill. Knowing what a possible “offender” looks like often saved lives, as some Australian spiders are not only poisonous, but also extremely aggressive.
Sydney funnel-web spider - this arthropod can be recorded as a leader in lethality. Sydney leukopautin spider (it is also called funnel spider), possessing long and strong fangs, prefers to attack the possible, in his opinion, enemy first. He is able to bite through not only the skin, but also the human nail, and, as a rule, inflicts several wounds at once with lightning speed, injecting poison into them.
This spider is especially dangerous for children, since they die in just 15 minutes, if they do not introduce the antidote that was invented in the 80s of the last century. Before the antidote was found, mortality from a bite of a funnel spider was quite high.
In second place for the threat to human life are red-backed Australian spiders. They are easy to spot by the bright red stripe on their abdomen, but their poison is also one of the deadliest. An adult dies of a bite within an hour, experiencing severe pain, sweating and nausea. Especially vulnerable are old people and adolescents, as in some the body is already weak, while in others it is not yet fully grown. If you seek help on time, you can avoid death.
Interesting: Australian red-backed spiders, more precisely, their females, are prone to cannibalism and eat their partners during mating. They are also dangerous to humans, but you should not find out the sex of this arthropod at a meeting.
In third place in terms of “harmfulness” to humans, the Australian classification of spiders places the red-headed mouse representative of the arthropod family. This is a rather large creature, able to enjoy not only a small mouse, but also a toad, and a lizard, which is larger than it in size.
The bite of this spider is not as toxic as the previous ones, but it can deliver a lot of unpleasant moments. It’s good that this species is non-aggressive and slow, but judging by their type and size, this can not be said.
Australia is a territory dangerous to human life if it does not follow the precautionary rules and does not carry several types of antidotes with it at once.
Horse spiders
The Australian bouncing spider is an arachnophobia nightmare, and this is not surprising. These creatures have 8 eyes, which are placed in three rows on their head, hairy legs and a rather large abdomen. Although they are unattractive, people need not fear them. Horse spiders prefer tropical forests, deserts and semi-deserts, where people have nothing to do.
As the name implies, these arthropods prefer not to wait for prey in a burrow, as, for example, tarantulas do, and not to run after it like a hunter spider, but to jump, often over fairly large distances. They even have their own safety thread, which they secure where they plan to jump. This type of spider prefers daytime hunting, and thanks to the hairs on its legs it can conquer any vertical surface, including glass.
Wolf spider
These Australian spiders got their name due to the habit of living and hunting at night alone in the territory that they consider their own. They can hardly be called pretty because of the large eyes and hairy legs, but they avoid people by hiding from them in foliage or in their minks.
The size of the body of this arthropod rarely exceeds 3 cm, but their legs are quite long. The Australian wolf spider belongs to the category of “jumpers”, since it prefers not to chase prey, but to jump on it from an ambush, for which it weaves a safety silk web, and when it catches prey, it eats it, holding it with its front paws.
Caring for offspring is an amazing feature of this type of spider. After mating, the female wraps eggs in several layers of the web, constructing a kind of cocoon that wears on itself for 2 weeks until the spiders hatch.
After the appearance of the offspring, a caring “mommy” carries them around until they learn to hunt on their own. Sometimes there are so many that only her eyes are visible.
As a rule, wolf spiders avoid humans and are not dangerous to them, but can bite if disturbed. Their toxin is not fatal, but causes itching and redness.
Australia's largest spiders
In the question of the size of arthropods, this country can also compete. For example, the largest Australian spider is a crab, or, as it is also called, a hunter. He does not eat crabs and is named so because of the structure of his paws, which bend like a representative of crustaceans.
The size of these spiders, together with their paws, reaches 30 cm or more, the color is mostly black, but brown or gray specimens are found. Fluffy paws, and the front ones with clearly visible spikes, do not add beauty to this huge spider.
The hunter is named so because he drives his prey like a real huntsman, quickly moving on the ground. People, as a rule, are avoided by these giants, but they can bite people who are especially annoying. Although their poison is not fatal to humans, the bite site is very swollen and sore. Bitten feels weak and dizzy.
Loxes
The most frightening thanks to the Internet are quickly becoming hermit spiders. Their bite is not fatal to humans, but the toxin included in its composition prevents the wound from healing, which sometimes leads to amputation of the arm or leg.
As a rule, the bite of this small arthropod often goes unnoticed, since it resembles a small needle prick, but after a few hours a person feels itching and pain, which are replaced by fever. If treatment is not carried out immediately, it can drag on for many months, since the reaction to hermit spider venom is tissue necrosis. It is impossible to restore damaged skin, and sometimes in order to save the patient's life, an extremity is amputated.
Unfortunately, hiding from these spiders is difficult. They often hide in shoes and clothes, in boxes, drawers and tables, so Australians should always shake their things before putting them on.
The good news is that this killer spider, as they called it, is non-aggressive and never attacks first.
Black house spider
These Australian spiders are the most common inhabitants in gardens, in crevices of fences and walls, on windows and in corners of rooms. Females, as a rule, do not leave their web, waiting for the “lunch” to fall into it. Although the appearance of these small creatures is not at all welcoming, they bite people extremely rarely, and if their web was damaged during the cleaning of the room, they simply restore it and live on there.
White tailed spider
If the Australian jumper spider overtakes prey due to its ability to push off the surface and make the jump, and the black brownie is waiting for food in its web, then the white-tailed appearance of arthropods simply catches up with its prey.
He does not weave a web and prefers to hide in secret places, which often become cabinets with things or boxes with shoes. His bite is not fatal, but causes severe swelling and pain.
Australian tarantulas
These arthropods would be stars in horror films. Not only are they large, and their fangs reach 1 cm in length, they also live long (females up to 30, and males up to 8 years). Their bites are extremely painful for humans, but not fatal, while for animals, such as cats or dogs, everything ends sadly if you do not give them medical attention on time.
Interesting facts about the spider "kingdom"
An amazing event in the country was the reaction shown by Australian flying spiders at the beginning of the flood. Trying to escape from the water, they launched thousands of cobwebs into the air, trying that the wind would catch them and carry them out of the danger zone. The consequence of this was the earth, white from their nets, as the web densely covered it tens of centimeters high.
Spiders are interesting and useful creatures, and if they are not disturbed, then they are harmless. Australians know this, so for a long time there have been no calls to the hospital because of their bites.