WhatsNew2Day – Latest News And Breaking Headlines
An 8-inch-long venomous spider native to Asia, whose palm-sized females cannibalize their male companions, is flying up the U.S. East Coast and even spreading westward.
Experts say the Jorō spider can fly 50 to 100 miles at a time, using its webs like parasails to glide with the wind, and is hitchhiking on East Coast highways, but they are not known to pose a threat to humans. or your pets. .
However, it is not yet known what impact this gentle giant spider, which is believed to have first arrived in the US a decade ago via shipping containers that arrived in Georgia, might have on wildlife. and local ecosystems.
One thing is certain, according to an ecologist at Rutgers University’s Lockwood Laboratory in New Jersey: “Very soon, possibly even next year, they should be in New Jersey and New York.”
An 8-inch-long venomous spider native to Asia, whose palm-sized females cannibalize their male companions, is flying up the U.S. East Coast and even spreading westward.
Experts say the Jorō spider can fly 50 to 100 miles at a time, using its webs like parasails to glide with the wind, and is hitchhiking along the roads of the East Coast. One environmentalist says he will be in New York and New Jersey “very soon, possibly even next year.”
“It’s a question of when, not if,” said PhD student and ecologist José R. Ramírez-Garofalo of the Rutgers Lockwood Lab. Staten Island Preview.
“Right now, we’re seeing them disperse into Maryland,” said Ramirez-Garofalo, who also serves as vice president of Pine Oak Woods Protectors on Staten Island.
Last month, other ecological and entomological researchers from New York, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina pooled their resources in an effort to predict how quickly and how far the invasive Jorō spider will travel. it was likely to spread.
The short answer spans the entire continental United States, Canada, and even parts of Mexico.
Their findings, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution‘add evidence that T. clavata [Jorō spider’s species name Trichonephila clavata] “It is an invasive species and deserves much greater ecological scrutiny,” they wrote.
‘While the impacts of T. clavata “No effects on human or pet health have been documented,” they continued, “our data show that their ecological impacts may not be equally benign as their invasion progresses.”
The researchers hope that their estimates, based on captured spiders and climate comparisons between North American regions and Jorō habitats in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan, will prompt action to protect house spider species.
“These patterns should strongly motivate financial institutions and researchers to focus their attention on this invasion,” they wrote, “and consider ways to mitigate its impacts on native communities.”
Last month, other ecological and entomological researchers from New York, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina pooled their resources in an effort to predict how quickly and how far the invasive Jorō spider was likely to spread. The short answer is widespread throughout the United States.
The researchers hope that their estimates, based on captured spiders and climate comparisons with regions of North America and Jorō’s home habitats in Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan, will prompt action to protect house spider species.
While Jorōs are venomous, experts say they are not a threat to humans or dogs and cats, and will not bite them unless they feel very threatened.
If they bite, it will feel like an occasional pinch, since spiders’ fangs are not large and sharp enough to pierce human skin, according to Paula Cushing, an arachnologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, who allowed one to bite. go to your palm.
In contrast, the Jorō spider feeds primarily on flies, mosquitoes, and bed bugs, the latter being not only a threat to crops, but also a threat currently free of natural predators in some parts of the United States.
Researchers say the Jorō could be a blessing in disguise for farmers and should be left alone.
“There’s really no reason to go around actively crushing them,” said Benjamin Frick, a researcher at the University of Georgia. ‘Humans are at the root of their invasion. Don’t blame the spider Jorō.
More than 150 years ago, a cousin of the Jorō spider, called the golden silk spider, also came to the United States from South America and the Caribbean.
However, unlike the Jorō, these spiders do not have the same body characteristics to spread in different climates of the country, since they mainly live in the southeastern United States.
The life cycle of Jorō spiders usually ends in late fall or early winter. The next generation emerges in spring.