No Need for Venom - _TNY_5452
I see the question "Is it venomous" (or the variation "Is it poisonous") quite often about spiders. Nearly alway, the person asking this wants to know if it has a medically significant venom for humans - but that is something different. Nearly all spiders use venom to kill their prey, but that doesn't mean they are dangerous for humans - just that they are venomous. I really wish people could begin to make this distinction.
There are around 735 different species of spiders in Sweden. Out of those, there are exactly two who don't use venom and this is one of them: a female triangle spider (Hyptiotes paradoxus).
The name triangle has nothing to do with the shape of the spider, but instead comes from the triangular web. The spider sits in the pointiest end of the triangle and holds the web tight. When prey touches the web it releases the end of the web which collapses on the prey which then is completely wrapped in spider silk.
I had the good fortune of finding this one in the common ivy growing on the garage wall even though it is very small. This was shot at 3.9:1 and I've calculated the length of the spider to just 2.66 mm / 0.104"). I do have a short video clip here which hopefully makes it a little easier to see the true size of it: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52633622749/
No Need for Venom - _TNY_5452
I see the question "Is it venomous" (or the variation "Is it poisonous") quite often about spiders. Nearly alway, the person asking this wants to know if it has a medically significant venom for humans - but that is something different. Nearly all spiders use venom to kill their prey, but that doesn't mean they are dangerous for humans - just that they are venomous. I really wish people could begin to make this distinction.
There are around 735 different species of spiders in Sweden. Out of those, there are exactly two who don't use venom and this is one of them: a female triangle spider (Hyptiotes paradoxus).
The name triangle has nothing to do with the shape of the spider, but instead comes from the triangular web. The spider sits in the pointiest end of the triangle and holds the web tight. When prey touches the web it releases the end of the web which collapses on the prey which then is completely wrapped in spider silk.
I had the good fortune of finding this one in the common ivy growing on the garage wall even though it is very small. This was shot at 3.9:1 and I've calculated the length of the spider to just 2.66 mm / 0.104"). I do have a short video clip here which hopefully makes it a little easier to see the true size of it: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52633622749/