• Litany@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Memes aside, since I’ve been on the internet long enough to know that this could legitimately be the first time someone’s seen this information:

    A brown recluse is a real spider endemic to the central United States. They are small, slender, and brown. Their bites are venomous and can require medical attention. In rare cases they can potentially be lethal, especially in young children.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_recluse_spider

    • tobogganablaze
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      3 months ago

      Thanks for that!

      To expand more on the meme side: It’s a notorious problem in spider communities that every brown spider will at some point be called a brown recluse by … less educated people. Which can lead to innocent spiders being killed just for their skin colour! Which is why there are usually rules that prohibit layman from identifying medically significant spiders.

      The spider in the picture is a tarantula, so very obvious not a brown recluse. That’s the joke. It’s funny here, but seriously don’t make that joke on an actual spider community, none of the residents will think it’s funny.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      My grandmother lost her pinky finger to one of those! Do not ingore the bite! It will require medical attention.

    • AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      I hate brown recluses so much. I’ve known several people that needed surgery because of them