More Trivia

Today seems to be a day for trivia!

Once again a piece from Reuters headlined:

Hot and Bothered Spiders Head Indoors
Fri Feb 11, 2005 09:00 AM ET

". . . . The redback is one of the most common of Australia's seemingly endless supply of poisonous pests. A distant cousin of the American black widow, it is distinguished by a red stripe on the shiny black, thumbnail-sized body of the larger female.

Scientists describe the redback's existence as "amoral" because of their unique mating behavior in which males give themselves up to the deadly females to be killed and eaten after mating.

"It's all about foreplay. If he doesn't have the moves, she's not going to be interested," said Sydney Taronga Zoo exhibit supervisor Warrick Angus, who said he kept a redback as a pet."

Pete's Points:

While the story is ostensibly about these arachnids getting into homes what is more interesting is the lack of quality editing of the material provided.

Describing the spider as "a distant cousin of the American black widow" the article goes on to describe what it calls the "unique mating behavior" of the redback.

I suppose only a pedant like me would note that one of the reasons that the 'cousin' in America is called a WIDOW spider is because it has the same noxious habit of eating its mate after the act of mating. Thus our own acclaimed redback's behaviour is not so 'unique'.

In addition the writer claims that only the female of the species has the "red stripe" on its back. Alas, for this hapless and ill informed journalist both the male and the female of the species have a tear drop shaped red marking on their backs - hence the name.

The author then goes on to criticise Australia as having a "seemingly endless supply of poisonous pests" - perhaps if he or she came to Australia for a visit to see what is really going on and to get the facts right, he or she might well be added to the list!