Blood Thirsty Spider

[David George]

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. The finding raises the possibility that other spiders also have a taste for human and mammal blood, the researchers add.

The blood-hungry spider, Evarcha culicivora, is found only around Lake Victoria in Kenya and Uganda. A species of jumping spider, or salticid, it usually hunts insects on tree trunks and buildings. It stalks its prey rather than trapping it in a web. The study team says the jumping spider uses both its acute eyesight and its sense of smell to seek out the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, a notorious blood-sucker that is the main carrier of malaria in Africa.

Although many spiders have relatively poor eyesight—those that use webs to trap prey have no need for acute vision,jumping spiders are an exception.Spiders don't have the skin-piercing mouth parts needed to feed directly on human blood, but the mosquito-munching jumping spider appears to have got around this. Also it can avoid a hit or squash by humans as they feed on mosquitos.

[David George]

It's me again to tell you about the assasin spider.With its fearsome appearance, poisonous bite, and deadly hunting skill, this newly discovered creature lives up to its name: assassin spider. Researchers working in Madagascar recently discovered this and eight other species of assassin spiders—a family of arachnids that feast on other eight-leggers—during a four-year survey of the island nation's forests. Assassin spiders have been known to live in Australia and South Africa.What's more, the scientists say these newfound spiders are exquisitely evolved—if grotesque-looking—killers. The spiders stab their prey with their giant jaws, which are barbed at the ends with venomous fangs. To be able to lift their outsized jaws, the assassins evolved elongated necks, giving the spiders a unique ability to strike from a distance. But arachnophobes can relax: Assassin spiders are a mere eighth of an inch (two millimeters) long and are harmless to humans.So no need to worry Ken Ramos you told me that you were afraid of spiders.

[alextemplet]

That looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Creepy.