Talk:Hexophthalma hahni
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Re: "Most dangerous" or "most venomous"
[edit]Should this say "....recognise it as the most dangerous spider or most "venomous" spider. After all the next paragraph suggests it's not dangerous!
- Well, "venomous" is relative. Some of the more venomous spiders are relatively harmless to humans, while the spiders with venoms that are harmful to humans may only possess or inject very small amounts of it. So, "dangerous" to the extent that a bite poses a danger to humans.
I just saw on National Geographic Channel's World's Most Dangerous Animals that there has indeed been one confirmed case of this spider biting a human causing death. -- Ϫ 00:13, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
- I don't think it makes a good case. Both suspected bites occurred during expeditions to seek out and study this exact spider; simply because interaction between this spider and humans is so rare, it can't be called that dangerous, no matter how potent its venom actually is. Cf. aggressive spiders living in heavily populated areas (Brazilian wandering spider and Sydney funnel-web spider in particular), which to me represent a far greater threat to human health (and have far higher death tolls). --DragoonWraith (talk) 06:14, 25 March 2012 (UTC)
Split
[edit]Should be split into family and species page. --Sarefo 04:19, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
Confirmed Bite/Death
[edit]At the start of the article it reads "Bites by Sicarius to humans are uncommon; there are no proven cases" while in the Venom section it reads "However, there has only been one confirmed death from it." Wouldn't a confirmed death count as a proven case? 24.224.187.230 (talk) 15:42, 24 August 2011 (UTC)
- Hear hear. The Jade Knight (talk) 21:49, 25 September 2011 (UTC)
- As I've heard it (and sadly I don't have a cite, I was coming here for one), there are only two cases in which this spider is suspected of having bitten a human (what with it living in exceedingly inhospitable deserts), but neither was, as far as I am aware, confirmed absolutely (I think technically confirmation requires catching the specimen who did it?). However, one of those cases resulted in a fatality, and the other (as I've heard it) required the amputation of the bitten arm. Obviously the extremely low number of samples make any kind of statistical statement somewhat farcical, but if you do look at it as a 50% death rate... that is by far the highest of any spider in the world. --DragoonWraith (talk) 06:14, 25 March 2012 (UTC)