Thanks for that, that’ll teach me to go carelessly Googling things, I’m itching form head to toe… 
Don’t be shy, tell us how you really feel.
Don’t be shy, tell us how you really feel.
So nice, said it twice.
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You of all people should know by now that the moment I mention a taxonomic Genus, it’s likely to be a Genus of pretty hardcore invertebrates! 
After all, in the past I’ve covered venomous spiders and centipedes, Amblypygids, Onychophorans, various interesting wasps (Pepsis species and Bullet Ants have featured prominently here) and if I ever delve into true ants in a big way, then Fire Ants (Solenopsis invicta) are likely to be the least of your worries.
Even Lepidoptera have their, shall we call them Australian moments? Such as various Limacodid moths, whose caterpillars include the various Saddleback Caterpillars and Slug Caterpillars, armed with a nice array of stinging hairs or spines that will ruin your day very efficiently if you brush against them. Then there’s Megalopyge opercularis, whose caterpillar famously resembles Donald Trump’s wig in appearance, and which will sting you just as viciously as its namesake.
As if that weren’t enough, there’s always Lonomia obliqua and its relations - a Genus of South American silkmoths whose caterpillars have the distinction of being the only Lepidoptera to be lethally venomous to humans. The stinging spines of these caterpillars are covered in a nasty array of toxins that trigger haemolysis and kidney failure, and a bad envenomation pretty much guarantees a painful death in around 24 to 48 hours.
Mind you, if you’re looking for some serious nightmare material, try Diptera, In the form of Cochliomyia hominivorax, Dermatobia hominis and Cordylobia anthropophaga. The curious can enjoy learning about those …
These, and a whole host of other organisms, are pretty much tailor made for the Monty Python skit on the “All Things Bright & Beautiful” hymn popularly taught to small children. Fortunately, certain invertebrate borne nasties such as Dracunculus medinensis are being rendered extinct by the Jimmy Carter Foundation, which is also playing a large role in poliomyelitis eradication, but you still have Onchocerca volvulus to worry about, not to mention Schistosomes, which have the added distinction of having a reproductive cycle involving keeping the female captive within the male genitalia, in a manner that will make most normal people shudder, but is probably in keeping with the dark fantasies of a good number of Trumpistanis and Christian Nationalists.
Quite frankly, why anyone would want their choice of magic man to be implicated in horrors such as this beats me, but such is the mental weirdness of “design” fetishists.
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well said Calli, those fuckers are bad tempered as well and will bit you just cos you are with 20 metres of them. No fuck off friendly rattle, just travel at you, and at some speed I will add, I have encountered a couple in my time and the make a red bellied black snake look amicable…hint they are fucking not!
So guess a few snake handling missionaries came here at some time and just didn’t make it back. I can imagine the amusement of my Indigenous brothers at watching their first attempt…
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It’s my understanding that most Australian snakes are elapids, which puts them in the same overall family as the cobras, kraits, and mamba snakes.
I’ve heard that the Inland Taipan is the most venomous snake on Earth, yet it has never been known to kill anyone. I was told (by an Australian herpetologist) that the inland taipan is a gentle, mild-mannered snake that only strikes as an absolute last resort . . . and some (stupid?) people can handle them with impunity after they become accustomed to humans.
Is this true?
I will tell you a story, way back when I was cookie way up North WA, outside a place called Warrawagine, about 360km to the pub and 30 years from civilisation. I was going out to the compost dump ,with Jackie the kitchen help, a young 1st nation lad. From the left about 15m away came very pissed off snake. It stopped and fixed Jackie with its gaze. Then changing direction came towards us with unmistakable lethal intent. That ficker meant business. Jackie turned to run and yelled “ficken run boss”…oh I already had. I had a 5 - 7 pace advantage and I swear I saw Jackie’s feet overhead as he leapt past me and hared off down the track. I ran like fuck occasionally casting a backward glance to see that mean brown bastard still whipping after us. It stopped at the edge of camp and ficked off after glaring on frustration at me and Jackie as we stood panting at the kitchen trailer door. Thankfully well off the ground. Taipan are not fucken peaceful or whatever that snake oil salesman said. They hold a grudge.
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It’s why Taipans feature in that song I posted in another thread, along with Funnel Web Spiders and Great White Sharks. All of then will come after you and ruin your day.
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Oh look, it’s Darwin Award time … some stupid idiot thought you could play with a Taipan … he’s now out of the gene pool:
We’re still waiting for an antivenom for this one.
Here’s why sensible people stay well clear of this one …
Go to South Africa, and they have their own nightmare species, the Black Mamba.
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Every atheist has their reason. Not all atheists are the same. Some are further along than others in their lack of belief.
It was easy for me. I never had a good enough reason to believe in God. Arguments and claims for God’s existence just didn’t meet my standards for evidence and taking a leap of faith was just as unacceptable to me. It feels dishonest. Morally and intellectually.
Though my family are Christians. I was not indoctrinated to any appreciable extent. I was allowed to question the issue. When people around me could not give me satisfactory answers, my curiosity turned into doubt. Which led me to atheism.
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Or I’ll stay here, it rains a fair bit, gets cold and windy, but there’s only one species of venomous snake, and you’re very unlikely to get bitten, and then very unlikely to die.
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But but you have (looks around for eavesdroppers) Tories…
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Yeah but they’re not venomous, well, not literally, and at least they’re not fatal, well not always…come to think of it, some of them do make my skin itch as well, like @Calilasseia’s creepy photos… 
My parents were casual Christians, never locked into one dogma over all the others. I decided it was all bullshit when Mom made me and my brother get up and go to the church on the corner, while the 'rents slept in. '(“Or something. wink-wink, nudge-nudge”). I just couldn’t buy the whole thing.
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But they ARE poisonous…
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Is that the European Adder? A small true viper?
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Adder, yes, some professor form a local university used to breed the suckers in the 70’s and release them on a local peninsula into the wild. It’s a popular tourist destination, and lots of farmland. He claimed they were an important part of the local ecology that kept certain pests down, it made the tabloids at the time, but this was the 70’s. To my knowledge no one was bitten, though he was not very popular for a while.
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One of my Facebook correspondents runs a wildlife gardening page. One of the contributors to that page lives in India. The day he posted about the King Cobra visiting his garden made lots of eyebrows raise …
17 feet of venomous snake with an attitude is enough to make anyone wonder if their life choices were a mistake …
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Hello David. Thank you for the questions.
I am convinced that the writers of the bible were writing fictional accounts that we would today call “superstition”. As you know, if you don’t know the science behind something, but you have a belief, it is easy to create an entire system of “knowledge” to support the biased premise.
I further believe that the original purpose of the “gods” were creative devices used to teach the ancient version of “science”. These ancient priests were the scientists of their time. And they could use the gods to teach about the behavior of the forces of nature.
Gods were also used for political reasons as people started taking the gods literally and lost the “spiritual”, which is the meta understanding communicated through their philosophies. Humans were guided by their lust for power, not simply knowledge. So people started becoming priests for political power and wealth, leaving the science behind.
This is the reason why many religions share many of the same concepts. This shows how different cultures interacted and what they took from and taught each other. At the same time it became common to use “gods” as a tool for power and influence which is why kings would often claim to be their descendants.