How big would a Daddy Longlegs Spider need to be to kill an average Human? Nn0 b89A0;E Ee AlRr tiu Bb YyliWw Jj psSs 1
Daddy Longlegs Spiders, officially "Pholcidae" are known to be the worlds most venomous spiders, sort of.
We are supposedly unaffected by them because their fangs are too small, the shape of their fangs, or their venom doesn't affect us due to size.
According to Rick Vetter of the University of California at Riverside, the daddy long-legs spider has never harmed a human and there is no evidence that they are dangerous to humans. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcidae
I would like to know how large one of these friendly but venomous spiders would need to be to cause significant harm/damage or even death to an average sized human. I'm creating something along the lines of the movie Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
Any information or speculation is appreciated!
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1$\\begingroup$ "to cause significant harm/damage or even death". Significant damages such as? Squishing a human? Bus sized, I'd say. Spearing one through the torso with a leg? Car sized. Maim by biting, big dog should be good (I'm eyeballing this one, don't take my word for it). Venom? Probably hard to accurately guess, since you seems unsure about the reason why it doesn't affect us. I think you should rephrase to indicate by which means you want the "significant damage" to be done ;) $\\endgroup$ – Nyakouai 10 hours ago
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4$\\begingroup$ Read the rest of the wiki entry that you linked. They did a myth busters, and it looks like your premise that they are "known to be the worlds most venomous spiders" is quite incorrect. They seem to have relatively weak venom. $\\endgroup$ – Mathaddict 9 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ As usual, just scaling up the current design results in a non-functional organism. Respiration is often the limiting factor in scaling up insects, I suspect spiders suffer a similar limitation (though I don't know literature for this). $\\endgroup$ – Gary Walker 9 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ in carboniferous era in the era where giant insect rule the world there a spider as big as cat so i think spider also affected like insect. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megarachne $\\endgroup$ – Li Jun 8 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ Spiders or insects large enough to kill Humans (without being extremely venomous) are fortunately impossible, though that doesn't stop filmmakers from sometimes making hit movies about it. And there are examples in literature, such as Shelob in Lord of the Rings. If you decide that some of your spiders get dissected, you may be able to put in a description of what enables them to function at their size to make it seem more plausible. $\\endgroup$ – M. A. Golding 5 hours ago
1 Answer
As noted in the comments, the Wikipedia article you cited contains a description of a Mythbusters episode in which Adam Savage allowed himself to be bitten by a daddy-long-legs. He experienced a "mild, short-lived burning sensation." From this we can conclude that pholcidae can bite humans, but their venom is not toxic to us.
While the venom of pholcidae has never been specifically studied, we can extrapolate some things from the study of other spider venom. Venom is characterized into two categories; necrotic and neurotoxic. Because Mr. Savage did not experience any ill effects to his nervous system, like the paralysis that often results from the bite of the black widow, we can assume that pholcidae venom is not neurotoxic, at least to humans. So, it's necrotic. This means that the main active components are peptides, and the main purpose of the venom is to aid the external digestion of the spider. This lines up with what we know about the hunting behavior of pholcidae; they immobilize their prey with silk-like threads and then envenom and consume them. It also lines up with Mr. Savage's experience; a mild burning sensation is consistent with being partially, mildly digested. It was a very small amount, so his body was able to very quickly recover from the damage.
This has lots of potential in a horror scenario. Victims do not die instantly of a poisonous bite; they are entombed in silk and then injected with acid that burns them alive very, very slowly, while a giant spider takes small bites out of the burned bits. That's terrifying. You just need to make the pholcids large enough that their webs could catch and hold a person. Pholcids are known to hunt huntsman spiders, which are roughly the same size as they are. So, your pholcids should be roughly person-sized.
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4$\\begingroup$ A remarkably logical answer. Also horrifying. But logical! +1 $\\endgroup$ – Joe Bloggs 9 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ Nah, they'd die soon enough; people aren't as robust as arthropods and have stupid things like needing functioning muscles to breathe, and to have actual blood pressure to perfuse their bodies. Can you imagine that? Enough injected digestive enzymes to melt a decent mouthful of human would probably finish em off in a few hours, tops. $\\endgroup$ – Starfish Prime 8 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ @StarfishPrime I would argue that "a few hours" is a very long time to be alive while being digested, both externally and internally. $\\endgroup$ – IAntoniazzi 8 hours ago
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2$\\begingroup$ @JohnDvorak it won't have to be in the neck... the effect of a circulatory system is to ensure that large quantities of the venom will be well distributed. I suspect that any bite near a large vein will cause death from cardiac or respiratory failure in relatively short order. $\\endgroup$ – Starfish Prime 6 hours ago
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1$\\begingroup$ Yes. This is gold, terrifying, slow-death, gold. Thank you!! $\\endgroup$ – Mumford451 5 hours ago