Practically all spiders are carnivorous (they feed on crickets, cockroaches, flies, birds and small vertebrates …), but there are some – very few, of course – herbivorous species (such as the jumping Bagheera kiplingi, a Central American spider that only eats plants). Scientists are convinced that there are still amazing species to be discovered. At the moment, approximately 43,000 types of spiders are known worldwide and in Australia alone there are more than 4,000 species of spiders.
Although there are people who suffer from arachnophobia , the most striking thing of all is that despite the panic that seeing them can cause us, the spiders considered the most terrifying are harmless to humans. In fact, there are more cases of injuries caused by fear reactions at the sight of one of these spiders than by spider bites.
A curious study published in 2012 in the journal The Science of Nature, revealed that if all the spiders on the planet coordinated and began to eat human beings, it would take less than a year to do so and they would even go hungry, because together they eat the equivalent to 400-800 million tons per year in dams.
Out of assumptions, if we had to highlight a spider for its deadly bite, it would undoubtedly be the Atrax robustus spider. This Australian spider, also known as the Sydney spider, is one of the spiders with the most powerful bite in the world, as its fangs are even capable of piercing a human shoe. The banana spider ( Phoneutria nigriventer ) is another one that stands out for its lethal venom. It is aggressive, large (takes up the palm of the hand), fast and so poisonous that the amount of venom needed to kill a 20 gram mouse is just 6 micrograms intravenously. For some scientists, it is the most toxic spider in the world. For others, a peculiar specimen, because in men it causes a somewhat curious side effect: the toxin produces an erection lasting at least 4 hours; yes, it is painful and can lead to greater ailments if it is not treated.
However, the spiders that we are going to see today stand out not so much for their toxicity, but for their appearance . A single glance at these spiders -with magnification, since most are of negligible size- will make you be surprised once again by the wonderful creatures that we can find in nature.
