Brazilian Wandering Spider
The Brazilian Wandering Spiders are found in south and central America. They are called wandering because they hunt at the forest floor during the night and don't sit and wait for prey to get intangled in their webs. In fact Brazilian Wandering Spiders doesn't build webs at all but resides in burrows or under fallen leaves or beneath rocks.
In total there are eight different Phoneutria species 1. Phoneutria is the Latin name for Brazilian Wandering Spider. Of the eight species five do not live in the Amazonas and the eight specie was found in 2007 (ibid).
The best known Brazilian Wandering spider is P. nigriventer. Nigriventer means something like «black-belly», when translating the Latin word into English. The black belly is a characteristic of the Brazilian Wandering Spider; it can be seen when it raises its forelegs, as they often do to look frigthening. It is the best known since it has the most toxic venom of the wandering spiders. Very small dosis, as a few millions of a gram, can kill small rodents such as mice.
As said, the Brazilian Wandering spider is nocturnal. It is aggressive and raises its two forelegs to anyone that gets too close. It is always ready to take a fight.
Bite effects & Venom
Its venom is a cocktail of related toxins. It is hypothesised that the venom affect the victims ion channels in their cells 2.
References
1 Martins, R. & Bertani, R. The non-Amazonian species of the Brazilian wandering spiders
of the genus Phoneutria Perty, 1833 (Araneae: Ctenidae), with the description of a new species
ZOOTAXA 1526 pp 1-36 (2007).
Gomez, M.V., Kalapothakis, E., Guatimosim, C., Prado, M.A.M.Phoneutria nigriventer venom: A cocktail
of toxins that affect ion channels CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR NEUROBIOLOGY 22(5-6) pp. 579-588 (2002).
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