Our friend Doug Yanega, in the Dept of Entomology (that’s insects, you ignoramus) at U of Cal, sends us comments on Dogster’s Mailbag item: Is a Daddy Long Legs the most poisonous spider?http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdaddy.html
Doug writes: << I can PERSONALLY confirm that phalangids can bite humans, since one bit me once on the ankle, obviously mistaking me for a piece of dead flesh. As
already correctly mentioned, they have no venom, so I was vastly more surprised than I was injured. >>
Actually, the Daddy Long-Legs IS the most venomous spider in the world, but we do not see this lovely feature when it bites, Oh no, my friend, we see this feature only when an animal eats the thing. The Daddy Long-Legs has this “Last Laugh” Venom. When an animal east the Daddy Long-Legs, it secretes it’s venom into the animal, and kills it. Faster than a Sea Snake (the most poisonous snake in the world). that’s why it’s a “Last Laugh” kinda thing.
If that were the case, then most of my old Boy Scout troop would be dead by now. The common consensus was that they tasted a little like peppermint, though I never actually tried one myself.
Just to note that we normally don’t like resurrecting old threads. Note that all the people who originally posted to this are shown as “guests” – they didn’t register after the conversion to paid membership. So, they wouldn’t be able to respond if you were commenting on their poss.
In this case, no big deal, since you’re sort of starting a new set of comments on the broader topic.