Photograph by Jim Foley.
Chelepteryx collesi -- white-stemmed gum moth, Canberra, Australia. Mr. Foley writes, "The caterpillar is about 12 cm long! Yet another member of the Australian fauna you don't want to mess with. ... We seem to have more venomous stuff than most places: lots of snakes, stonefish, spiders, jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, etc., not to mention the crocodiles and sharks."
19 Comments
ksplawn · 9 February 2015
Even the crocodiles and sharks are venomous? D:
eric · 9 February 2015
Heh. No, but they have venomous mammals. That's a rarity. :)
mattdance18 · 9 February 2015
eric said:
Heh. No, but they have venomous mammals. That's a rarity. :)
Australia has venomous mammals?!?
I know shrews have toxic saliva, making a shrew bite sting like crazy (if you're a human: earthworms fare decidedly worse). But are you talking about something else? I must be forgetting something -- something awesomely worth remembering, no doubt.
gdavidson418 · 9 February 2015
mattdance18 said:
eric said:
Heh. No, but they have venomous mammals. That's a rarity. :)
Australia has venomous mammals?!?
I know shrews have toxic saliva, making a shrew bite sting like crazy (if you're a human: earthworms fare decidedly worse). But are you talking about something else? I must be forgetting something -- something awesomely worth remembering, no doubt.
Little bugger smiling like a duck, lays eggs.
OK, the ones that lay eggs aren't venomous, but their big boys are.
Glen Davidson
eric · 9 February 2015
Matt: the male platypus has a poisonous spur. And unlike most of the other venomous mammals, this ain't no secondary toxicity derived from some symbiotic species or bacteria, it's real venom, from a venom-producing gland. The way god intended. :)
gdavidson418 · 9 February 2015
ksplawn said:
Even the crocodiles and sharks are venomous? D:
Sure, you just don't notice because you're being digested by the time the venom would take effect.
My theory, at least.
Glen Davidson
Mike Elzinga · 9 February 2015
"Red next to black; friend of Jack. Red next to yellow; kill the fellow."
Oh, wait; that was for a coral snake.
Henry J · 9 February 2015
What will it look like when it grows up, and for now which end is the front?
Jim Foley · 10 February 2015
Matt's quotes from me were culled from at least a couple of different emails. The caterpillar has barbed spines that are apparently painful and hard to remove, hence "don't want to mess with". But it isn't venomous (neither are the sharks and crocs!). The right hand end of it is the front end. Google "white stemmed gum moth" to see what it turns into; a large quite attractive moth.
Matt Young · 10 February 2015
Mattâs quotes from me were culled from at least a couple of different emails.
Two exactly, I think. I suppose that the ellipsis should in principle been replaced with a close quote and then an open quote. Still, I never got the implication that crocodiles and sharks were among the "venomous stuff."
Paul Burnett · 10 February 2015
eric said:
Heh. No, but they have venomous mammals. That's a rarity. :)
You must not participate in some of the creationist blogs I do.
stevaroni · 10 February 2015
Seriously, wouldn't it be just be a lot easier listing the animals in Australia that can't kill you?
I hear, for example, that there are at least three species of ladybugs found in Queensland that have hardly any fangs at all and, unless cornered, their attacks are not usually considered life threatening to otherwise healthy adults.
Dave Luckett · 11 February 2015
stevaroni said:
Seriously, wouldn't it be just be a lot easier listing the animals in Australia that can't kill you?
I hear, for example, that there are at least three species of ladybugs found in Queensland that have hardly any fangs at all and, unless cornered, their attacks are not usually considered life threatening to otherwise healthy adults.
Nonsense. It's true we have the world's only mammal with actual venom glands, but it hardly signifies. There are no recorded human fatalities from platypuses. They're more dangerous to dogs.
We do have nine of the world's ten most dangerous snakes, and three of the five top spiders. Plus coneshells, blue-ringed octopuses, stonefish, and lionfish. Even the hairy caterpillars are nasty, and there's scorpions and particularly vicious centipedes as well. The worst of all, though, for venom, is the Queensland box jellyfish or sea wasp, and its smaller cousin the irrikundji. You don't go swimming in northern waters when they're in season - which is the wet season, pretty much. It's said to be the most painful death known to man, although how anyone knows that I couldn't say.
Crocodiles and sharks are far and away the most dangerous, though. Dingoes are thought to be sometimes dangerous to children, but unlike most dogs, they're either found solitary or as mated pairs (which is different social behaviour from other dogs that causes breeding separation and appears to be leading towards speciation). The only dangerous big dry-land animals are introduced species - the Territory buffalo and the feral pig.
Oh, and the drop bear. But they're only found in the forests of the Nullabor Plain.
eric · 11 February 2015
Dave Luckett said:
Dingoes are thought to be sometimes dangerous to children...Oh, and the drop bear. But they're only found in the forests of the Nullabor Plain.
Ha! Double ha!
Kevin B · 11 February 2015
Dave Luckett said:
Nonsense. It's true we have the world's only mammal with actual venom glands, but it hardly signifies. There are no recorded human fatalities from platypuses. They're more dangerous to dogs.
You've left out the politicians, who go round giving knighthoods to nonagenerian scions of redundant monarchies.
Just Bob · 14 February 2015
Ha! Caught Dave in a typo, and an Aussie-centric one at that! It's Nullarbor, meaning 'without trees'.
Nyah, nyah!
Dave Luckett · 15 February 2015
I am chastened and contrite.
stevaroni · 16 February 2015
Just Bob said:
Ha! Caught Dave in a typo, and an Aussie-centric one at that! It's Nullarbor, meaning 'without trees'.
Nyah, nyah!
Not necessarily. Maybe he simply has a deep-seated dislike for members of the Austin Board of Realtors.
Having once owned, and subsequently sold, a home in Austin, I can attest to the fact that they can be a prickly bunch.
I suspect that there are many plains in Australia that are totally devoid of Austin realtors, and Dave could be speaking about one of these. Whether they are commensurately infested with drop-bears, I cannot say, but nonetheless, being Australia, you can rest assured that there is something there, perhaps some species of smallish dandelion, that will brutally murderkill you totally dead if given the slimmest chance.
19 Comments
ksplawn · 9 February 2015
Even the crocodiles and sharks are venomous? D:
eric · 9 February 2015
Heh. No, but they have venomous mammals. That's a rarity. :)
mattdance18 · 9 February 2015
gdavidson418 · 9 February 2015
eric · 9 February 2015
Matt: the male platypus has a poisonous spur. And unlike most of the other venomous mammals, this ain't no secondary toxicity derived from some symbiotic species or bacteria, it's real venom, from a venom-producing gland. The way god intended. :)
gdavidson418 · 9 February 2015
Mike Elzinga · 9 February 2015
"Red next to black; friend of Jack. Red next to yellow; kill the fellow."
Oh, wait; that was for a coral snake.
Henry J · 9 February 2015
What will it look like when it grows up, and for now which end is the front?
Jim Foley · 10 February 2015
Matt's quotes from me were culled from at least a couple of different emails. The caterpillar has barbed spines that are apparently painful and hard to remove, hence "don't want to mess with". But it isn't venomous (neither are the sharks and crocs!). The right hand end of it is the front end. Google "white stemmed gum moth" to see what it turns into; a large quite attractive moth.
Matt Young · 10 February 2015
Paul Burnett · 10 February 2015
stevaroni · 10 February 2015
Seriously, wouldn't it be just be a lot easier listing the animals in Australia that can't kill you?
I hear, for example, that there are at least three species of ladybugs found in Queensland that have hardly any fangs at all and, unless cornered, their attacks are not usually considered life threatening to otherwise healthy adults.
Dave Luckett · 11 February 2015
eric · 11 February 2015
Kevin B · 11 February 2015
Just Bob · 14 February 2015
Ha! Caught Dave in a typo, and an Aussie-centric one at that! It's Nullarbor, meaning 'without trees'.
Nyah, nyah!
Dave Luckett · 15 February 2015
I am chastened and contrite.
stevaroni · 16 February 2015
Henry J · 16 February 2015
Crikey!