ARACHNOPHOBIA and STUFF

Gordon C. Snelling (72203.127@CompuServe.COM)
29 Jul 93 00:29:27 EDT

Hi all
I thought i would toss in my two cents worth in the great spider
debates.The genus loxosceles is a rather wide spread U.S. genus,
at this point I believe there is only one recognized species,L.
reclusa.although I,ve heard that the western form is considered
a seperate species.It is considered an eastern species that has been introdu
introduced into other areas. However in view of some of the areas
specimens have been found I'm inclined to suspect that the western form
is a native to our area,including Arizona,as i'm sure you'll be
happy to hear Barry,you to Mike.
The one part about all this spider hype that really annoys me is that
never is any mention made of the fact that under the right conditions
most other spider bites can produce symptoms almost indentical to
those of Loxosceles.Thats not to say that the bite of Loxosceles is
not serious,it can be very serious indeed as we keep hearing.but I feel
it's inaccurate to ascribe the problem to one creature without a
specimen in hand to make a positive I.D. but alas "Women Bitten by
jumping spider,almost loses head" won't sell many papers.
I currently work in the pest control field,next to killer bees
and black widow spiders we get more questions about Loxosceles
than any other arthropod.Unfortunately our industry preys on the
fears of the layman, As a result I spend a great deal of time
trying to educate our customers and technicians in these areas.
Depending on which taxonomist you listen to we have one or two
species of blackwidow here in the states.the form we are most
familiar with is the typical all black with red hourglass,
however the other species is black and often has red and white
patterning on the upper surface of the abdomen,for a person
unfamiliar with this spider, this can be very confusing when
it comes to indentifications.We have bothforms/species here
in California,although the all balck form is by far the most
common. Another confusing fact is the "hourglass" is often
not of the expected shape.THe Australian "Red Back spider"
belongs to the same genus to the best of my knowledge and if
our north american species has been introduced down under
there is indeed a possibility of hybridization "yuck"
although I seriously doubt there would be any kind of super
spider produced as a result,just a mass of intermediate forms,
hey kind of sounds like botanical hybrids.
Michael s you and Barry have found Sun Spiders are some ugly
looking customers,however for all their hideous appearance the
onlt do two things, eat and make babies.And eating is by far the
most important thing for them to do.these little guys have a
metabolism of about warp nine.and can starve to death in just a
couple of days.The longest on has survived incaptivity is that
I know of is two weeks.
Cone nose beetles are actually not beetles but belong to the
order hemiptera more commonly called true bugs.They are characterized
by having sucking mouth parts, although i'm not sure if chaga's is one
of diseases they carrythey are known to transmit a couple of
diseases.On top of that people have been known to expire from allergic
reaction to the bite alone, and I can say from personal experience that
the bite is more than a little uncomfortable.
Well I guess you've endured enough bug talk,so let's move on to the
next subject,Mimosa,I've been growing a Mimosa species from
Madagascar for about a year now it seems to be as easy as M.pudica
in culturethe only peculiarity I've noticed is the need for the seed
to be scarified before it will germinate.After i scrape up the seed
I soak it for 24 hours and plant,seeds generally sprout in 2 or 3 days.
I haven't experimented to see how cold tolerant this species is but
it tolerates mid 40's ok.I hope to have seed available in a couple
of month's,if anyone is interested in some let me know.
Michael have you got any idea what species this might be or know
any one I could contact to find out?
must be off ,good growing.G.C.S.