Two-Striped Telamonia, a Poisonous Spider under Toilet Seat Hoax

Story:

New Poisonous Spider In The United States

A spider bite…please read………… And you thought the brown recluse was bad!!!

Three women in North Florida , turned up at hospitals over a 5-day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma.

Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood. These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same Restaurant (Olive Garden) within days of their deaths.. The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.

The big break came when a waitress at the restaurant was rushed to the hospital with similar symptoms. She told doctors that she had been on vacation, and had only went to the restaurant to pick up her check. She did not eat or drink while she was there, but had used the restroom.

That is when one toxicologist, remembering an article he had read, drove out to the restaurant, went into the restroom, and lifted the toilet seat. Under the seat, out of normal view, was a small spider.

The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider’s venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.

Several days later a lawyer from Jacksonville showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from Indonesia , changing planes in Singapore, before returning home. He did not visit (Olive Garden), while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.

Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in India. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from India , and discovered the Two-Striped Telamonia (Telamonia dimidiata) spider’s nests on 4 different planes!

It is now believed that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life!

And please pass this on to everyone you care about

Other Versions

FW: Warning! Spider in the toilet!
Importance: High

I’m told this isn’t a joke. Take it or leave it!: Please pass this on to everyone on your email list:

According to an article by Dr. Beverly Clark, in the Journal of the United Medical Association (JUMA), the mystery behind a recent spate of deaths has been solved.

If you haven’t already heard about it in the news, here is what happened. 3 women in Chicago, turned up at hospitals over a 5 day period, all with the same symptoms. Fever, chills, and vomiting, followed by muscular collapse, paralysis, and finally, death. There were no outward signs of trauma. Autopsy results showed toxicity in the blood.

These women did not know each other, and seemed to have nothing in common. It was discovered, however, that they had all visited the same restaurant (Big Chappies, at Blare Airport), within days of their deaths.

The health department descended on the restaurant, shutting it down. The food, water, and air conditioning were all inspected and tested, to no avail.

The spider was captured and brought back to the lab, where it was determined to be the South American Blush Spider (arachnius gluteus), so named because of its reddened flesh color. This spider’s venom is extremely toxic, but can take several days to take effect. They live in cold, dark, damp, climates, and toilet rims provide just the right atmosphere.

Several days later a lawyer from Los Angeles showed up at a hospital emergency room. Before his death, he told the doctor, that he had been away on business, had taken a flight from New York, changing planes in Chicago, before returning home. He did not visit Big Chappies while there. He did, as did all of the other victims, have what was determined to be a puncture wound, on his right buttock.

Investigators discovered that the flight he was on had originated in South America. The Civilian Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered an immediate inspection of the toilets of all flights from South America, and discovered the Blush spider’s nests on 4 different planes!

It is now beleived that these spiders can be anywhere in the country. So please, before you use a public toilet, lift the seat to check for spiders. It can save your life!

And please pass this on to everyone you care about.

Picture about Two-Striped Telamonia, a Poisonous Spider under Toilet Seat Hoax — Two-Striped Telamonia, a Poisonous Spider under Toilet Seat Hoax

Analysis:

These messages have been circulating in various versions ever since 1999, through emails in the beginning, and now through social networking websites. All these messages warn people of poisonous spider bites found under toilet seats in Florida and elsewhere, that they have caused death of few people. These are not facts, the messages are hoax.

The older versions of these warning messages that started circulating in 1999 through emails came with all fake information that did not exist, like the Journal of the United Medical Association (JUMA), Blare Airport and Big Chappies restaurant in Chicago. There was no such scientific publication from Dr. Beverly Clark and nor there were any news reports of air traveler deaths caused by spider bites. Most of all, there was no spider genus with the name Arachnius gluteus, which apparently meant butt spider.

The newer, present versions of these messages that started circulating since 2003 related to North Florida, warning people about these non-existent poisonous spider bites by using strange pictures of two-striped Telamonia dimidiata – with a more convincing story. Although it is a fact that two-striped Telamonia dimidiata is a genus of jumping spiders found in various Asian tropical rain forests and in foliage in wooded environments, they are harmless, non-venomous and do not produce any toxin significant to humans. These jumping spiders can be found in India, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran and Bhutan, and are strange by appearance (See pictures in the reference section below). Moreover, there are no credible news reports of any such incidents of spider bites under toilet seats in North Florida or elsewhere that have caused death of people dining in restaurants. Therefore, these are simply hoax messages and need not be shared or forwarded.

Spiders are a fascinating and frightening species, so there have been many such hoax stories around them. Couple of them are the Angolan Witch Spider, Largest in the World, Eats Pets and the Giant Camel Spiders.

One interesting thing about this original poisonous spider bite hoax is that the creator of it later came out and explained why he made up such a story. He purposely filled the hoax story with incorrect information hoping that if the reader checked into any bit of the information, a red flag would have arisen as there is no credibility to the citation of information. However, he never expected his story to spread so fast and so wide. He further added saying his hoax story becoming popular proved few things:

1) People are gullible.
2) That the internet is a frighteningly fast way to spread misinformation.
3) That people forward on information without checking the veracity of the information.

Truly so! People should be careful in what they read, believe and share online.