Viegas, Jennifer. "Why Black Widow Spider Venom Is So Potent." Discovery News. 6 January 2015. 12 January 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/49333-why-black-widow-spider-venom-is-so-potent.html>
Scientists have found that Black Widow spiders produce a similar toxic compound called latrotoxins like common house spiders. However the difference is that female balck widow spiders produce high amounts of toxic venom to the point that they must spin stronger webs to handle bigger caught prey. When bitten by one, the neurotoxin called alpha-latrotoxin attacks the victim's own nervous system causing the signals from each neuron to malfunction. Many spiders churn out toxins to help with their hunting, but occaisonaly they make a version that is not harmful to most people because it's "watered-down".On average 2,200 people get bitten by one, but eventually recover with medical treatment after 24 hours. Researchers have also found out that the spider's venom contains a mixture of other toxins that make the alpha-latrotoxin more effective.
This relates to term 2 because scientists believe that these black widow spiders have evolved over the past few years to create such potent venom so it could expand its diet. Before they could consume small animals and reptiles, more smaller prey and even their mates, but now their food can be on the even larger scale. This shows they have evolved to cope with their eating conditions. This term we learned how organisms can adapt to a particular envrionment by improving its ability to survive and reproduce; black widow spiders are creating more toxic venom to kill larger prey, larger prey means more food, and more food means easier survival.
Are Black Widow Spiders also evolving size wise in order to kill and feed on larger pray? Are these Spiders suddenly expanding their diets because there is something competing with them?
ReplyDeleteNo evidence shows that these spiders are growing in size, but there is evidence showing that they are spinning stronger webs to hold their large victim(s) and them using a more deadly venom to kill. So it wouldn't help much even if they were larger due to their much stronger webs and more toxic venom that benefit them already.
DeleteHow can this relate to the case with Darwin's finches in how the finches' beak sizes adapted to the different availability of foods on the Galapagos Islands?
ReplyDeleteSince smaller prey is easier to catch, there is probably more predators that consume it in comparison to larger prey. Therefore possibly the black widow spiders are trying to find a food source that has less competition which is the larger prey, so they create a more deadly venom to kill it. Similar to Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands, the finches change their beak sizes in relation to big seeds in the dry years and big seeds in the wet years to easily obtain their food.
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