I hope this helps any of you with any questions or worries about the false widow spider and I have included a picture at the bottom for recognition purposes.
Sunday, 31 August 2014
The false widow epidemic in the UK. Helpful advice for anyone who is concerned.
This has been a topic that has haunted most people over the UK especially those with arachnophobia and has probably led to many spiders both totally harmless and this species being killed in large numbers. Having read today that there has been another incident involving a believed false widow bite Click here to view story which has left a woman with severe trauma to her leg in hospital; I decided to look into the story of the false widow to see if it is really that dangerous and in the process stumbled upon this very helpful web page constructed by the National History Museum, regarding the subject Click here for the web page which should help to put some people's minds at rest.
I hope this helps any of you with any questions or worries about the false widow spider and I have included a picture at the bottom for recognition purposes.
I hope this helps any of you with any questions or worries about the false widow spider and I have included a picture at the bottom for recognition purposes.
Saturday, 30 August 2014
Guy bitten by assumed red back spider
Firstly Click here for the link to the original article. If you would like more background information on the subject.
This of course is a rare an unfortunate incident which due to foreign imports is becoming slightly more frequent; I would also like to add that this is not a case of migration, due to climate change as the spiders originate from Australia and as far as I know have not been documented as being found in large concentrations anywhere else.
The man unfortunately lost his life due to lack of knowledge of the spider species and also not responding quick enough to a incident that clearly required urgent medical treatment, as the man was bleeding quite heavily.
Red back spiders as I mentioned previously originate from Australia and are from the family
Latrodectus which contains black widow spiders, to which the red back shows a resemblance with its black body with red dorsal stripe and hourglass mark on its underside. It is genuinely found across Australia and is often found living in human settlements forming funnel like webs. Whether this species could survive in the UK is questionable as our climate varies from which it would find back in Australia where it is known to decline in the winter months with, a temperature roughly around 16 degrees Celsius which when compared to our winters that easily fall into the minuses would suggest that they would not survive here.
So for now all we need to concern ourselves with is just making sure that whenever we buy a product from aboard, is to check that nothing else has come along with it.
This of course is a rare an unfortunate incident which due to foreign imports is becoming slightly more frequent; I would also like to add that this is not a case of migration, due to climate change as the spiders originate from Australia and as far as I know have not been documented as being found in large concentrations anywhere else.
The man unfortunately lost his life due to lack of knowledge of the spider species and also not responding quick enough to a incident that clearly required urgent medical treatment, as the man was bleeding quite heavily.
Red back spiders as I mentioned previously originate from Australia and are from the family
Latrodectus which contains black widow spiders, to which the red back shows a resemblance with its black body with red dorsal stripe and hourglass mark on its underside. It is genuinely found across Australia and is often found living in human settlements forming funnel like webs. Whether this species could survive in the UK is questionable as our climate varies from which it would find back in Australia where it is known to decline in the winter months with, a temperature roughly around 16 degrees Celsius which when compared to our winters that easily fall into the minuses would suggest that they would not survive here.
So for now all we need to concern ourselves with is just making sure that whenever we buy a product from aboard, is to check that nothing else has come along with it.
Friday, 29 August 2014
Female anaconda virgin birth
Hi everyone and welcome to my blog page, I am a second year zoology student who is passionate about all things animal based and wanted to share my passion and knowledge with you all. If you want to find out any more about me then please click the about me button on my homepage. This is my first blog post so I am hoping I do not make any beginners mistakes and that it all goes well.
For my first post I would like to discuss a topic that has been circulating the news quite often lately regarding the virgin birth by a female anaconda at West Midlands Safari Park in the UK Click here for a link to the news article regarding it .
I find this to be a amazing demonstration of how nature can continue to amaze us. As mentioned in the article parthenogenesis or virgin birth occurs in other animal species including reptiles, a interesting concept to consider regarding this, is how isolated islands such as the Galapagos became populated by reptile species; all it would take is for a female reptile to wash up on the shore and via parthenogenesis form a entirely new colony of animals therefore, I think it would be of great interest to test DNA samples from reptile species found on isolated islands to see if there are any incidences where this may have occurred and the impact this has had on the reptile population in that area, as a possible downside for this method of starting a population is that all offspring will be related which will reduce genetic viability though, a point of note would be that if other reptiles of the same species made it to the island at other times the gene pool would be stronger and more able to support population growth.
For my first post I would like to discuss a topic that has been circulating the news quite often lately regarding the virgin birth by a female anaconda at West Midlands Safari Park in the UK Click here for a link to the news article regarding it .
I find this to be a amazing demonstration of how nature can continue to amaze us. As mentioned in the article parthenogenesis or virgin birth occurs in other animal species including reptiles, a interesting concept to consider regarding this, is how isolated islands such as the Galapagos became populated by reptile species; all it would take is for a female reptile to wash up on the shore and via parthenogenesis form a entirely new colony of animals therefore, I think it would be of great interest to test DNA samples from reptile species found on isolated islands to see if there are any incidences where this may have occurred and the impact this has had on the reptile population in that area, as a possible downside for this method of starting a population is that all offspring will be related which will reduce genetic viability though, a point of note would be that if other reptiles of the same species made it to the island at other times the gene pool would be stronger and more able to support population growth.
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