| Archive for scabies.myfreeforum.org Southern California Arachnid, Bug, Invertebrate, Entomological Society |
| ogershok |
Komodos. After all these years...We find out that they actually ARE venomous!http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090...malkomodoaustralia_20090519073836 |
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| cacoseraph |
giant bite........ or venom
venom..... or giant bite bite... venom.... venom... bite wait i know! both! |
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| balam |
You are talking about the magnitude of the bite? well the venom in my opinion would really be de definitive factor in a kill. Komodos, though surprisingly fast in a sprint are relatively slow in the long chase, a bite might injure an animal in a life threatening way, but without the venom (which is apparently very fast acting) it still is just a giant bite (mind you I understand a giant bite means a GIANT bite  )
So the question really is, would they be able to make the kill without the venom glands? |
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| cacoseraph |
i thought their strategy was to make weeping wounds and let things bleed out, following a neon spore trail
the venom makes them bleed more, clot less, and have a lower blood pressure. those three things combined with a bite that leaves gnarly wounds is quite powerful! the bleed more and clot less factors help the animal to lose blood. losing blood is bad because as i understand mammalian circulatory systems they need to like, maintain at least a minimum blood pressure to keep pumping and circulating oxygenated blood... and the venom ALSO causes a decrease in blood pressure! i think the venom makes their bite much worse.. but by itself (say, injected like a front fang snake strike) probably wouldn't be hideous, as you would only have the lowering of blood pressure. and i expect that the BP effect isn't *that* pronounced considering the venom was sort of ~hidden till now. the combo of bite and venom is awesome 
also, i thought i read that all Iguanidae (or whatever) were found to have some kind of venom glands. i sort of remember when reading that the venom glands were either rudimentary or somehow not like "full/real" venom glands |
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| balam |
Do they also attack in "packs"?
Guess whatever they get isn't go far anyway. |
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| cacoseraph |
i don't know and couldn't easily google anything
also, i guess i misremembered and it is agamids not iguanas that might have some kinda venomness to them |
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| ftorres |
Hello Andrew,
I think it was iguanids. They showed that iguanids might have venemous glands. francisco |
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| ogershok |
I had a rather large bite on the side of my face years ago from a green iguana and it got inflamed, sore, and swollen really fast, a lot faster than anything I've ever seen. I even went to the doctor after the swelling started to spread. I suspect there might have been some factor involved other than the mechanical damage from the bite. | ||
| cacoseraph |
if it took days to swell i would lean towards infection
if it took hours to swell i would lean towards venom/something else that is my general rule for centipede bites. but of course we all know i only hold a degree in lunacy, so everything i take should be taken with quite a bit of NaCl (i call salt "nackle" sometimes... though i suppose since most table salt is also iodized i should call it nackly heh) |
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| Matt Kogler |
This isnt new news, Bryan Fry has been involved with this research for years.. He has even demonstrated that 99% of all snakes produce some kind of venom.. Great guy... | ||
| ogershok |
It took very little time. Not much more than an hour. I had a horseshoe shaped arch of cuts on the side of my face and shortly after the bite I could feel my lymph glands in my neck hurting. What was weird was the circumstances of the bite. I wasn't even holding him. He was sexually mature and really feeling his oats. He was in another room and looking at me from about ten feet away. With no warning he started running full-tilt at me and ran up my leg, across my lap and latched onto my face before I knew what was going on. Probably a territorial thing. He was usually really mellow. Prying him off wasn't fun. |
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| cacoseraph |
that's crazy! that gives you just enough time to say "oh crap, this is going to suck" before it gets you.
the lymph node thing is interesting... one of my three bad centipede bites had lymphatic affect... it felt like a golfball was lodged in my arm pit! luckily i head read it was possible or i might have been a little freaked out, heh |
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