swarms of venomous spiders invade Indian town

[alexdesignz]

It may sound like a B-grade horror movie, but residents of the town of Sadiya, in Assam state, say that on the evening of May 8 as they were celebrating a Hindu festival swarms of spiders suddenly appeared and attacked them, The Times of India reported.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06...#ixzz1wkOXh2vC

[Ungoliant]

This may just be another case of fear-mongering by the media. (Scary stories sell.)

I am reflexively skeptical of any article about spiders that contains the words "deadly" and "aggressive." (If this spider is swarming, where are the pictures?) Also suspect are claims that "arachnid experts" have not only failed to identify the species, but apparently can't distinguish between families of mygalomorphs.

Teams of Indian arachnid experts have flocked to the town, hoping to identify the species, but so far they have drawn a blank.

They say it could be a tarantula, a black wishbone or even a funnel-web spider -- or it could be a whole new species.

One thing they agree on is that it is not native to the area as there is no record of venomous spiders in Assam. The black wishbone and funnel-web are native to Australia.

Dr. Anil Phatowali, superintendent of the town's hospital, said they had not administered antivenin as they could not be certain the spider was venomous at all.

He also pointed out other factors may have contributed to the two reported fatalities.

"All the bite patients first went to witch doctors, who cut open their wounds with razors, drained out blood and burnt it. That could have also made them sick," Phatowali said.

[Ungoliant]

Here is a more sensible take on this story: Web of Doubt Surrounds India Spider Attack.

[Whitlock]

That second one is the article I saw Ungoliant. It seems like nothing more than a small community jumping to conclusions and feeding irrational fear of spiders. I'm willing to bet they determined, at the time, every swollen red mark on each persons skin was a spider bite based on nothing more than what the individuals stated when they got to the doctor.

[alexdesignz]

Heres a video on it... http://news.yahoo.com/video/world-15...-29587833.html

[PillsburyDoughboy]

That video clearly shows what the spider looks like does anyone here have any ideas what it might be?

[Ungoliant]

Other than being some kind of mygalomorph, I'm not sure. I don't know a lot about mygalomorphs or Indian spiders. According to this article from the Times of India, British naturalist Dr. Vejay Singh made a tentative genus ID of Selenocosmia or Lyrognathus.

TOI had showed him an image of the spider, to which he responded: "This is indeed a theraphosid spider or more commonly called tarantula. Most likely from the genus selenocosmia or lyrognathus, but more probably the former. The spiders are nocturnal, which explains why the attacks took place at night. The selenocosmia are aggressive spiders and will bite readily when provoked. However, they are not a social spider like the poecilotheria (tree spiders) which occur in south India and Sri Lanka. So a suggestion of swarms is puzzling. Perhaps, it is more likely to be a freak case of a population sprawl in the area. And although aggressive by nature, these spiders are not considered dangerous with regards to toxicity, and are unlikely to cause a fatal bite in a healthy individual."