Venomous intruder in Death Railway cave may have sneaked in during WWII

Experts from the Chulalongkorn University’s Centre of Excellence in Entomology have discovered about 500 of these spiders in a Kanchanaburi cave. They believe their ancestors might have come to the Kingdom during World War II.
Narin Chompoophuang, a doctorate student at the university’s Faculty of Science, told a press conference yesterday that the cave sat along the Death Railway and was used for storing equipment for railway construction during wartime.
Thousands of prisoners of war were forced to help construct the Japanese railway to link Thailand to Myanmar.
“The recent discovery means there are now three highly venomous spider species in Thailand,” Narin said.
Two other highly dangerous spiders in the country are the brown widow spider and Latrodectus sp.
Narin said Mediterranean recluse spider bites could be lethal if the bitten victim did not receive timely and proper treatment.
“The risk is higher among children, the elderly and people with immunity problems,” he said.
He said the spider’s venom killed tissue in bitten areas and if the wound became infected, conditions could worsen to the point of death.
However, Narin explained that the Mediterranean recluse spiders were not aggressive and people could avoid lethal bites simply by not touching the creatures.
Mediterranean recluse spiders are dark brown in colour. Each is about seven to 7.5 millimetres long. It has three pairs of eyes and four pairs of legs.
Such spider species had never been found in Southeast Asia before. Records show they have existed in the United States, Europe, Australia, Taiwan, Japan and China.
Narin said normally the Mediterranean recluse spiders would not relocate. He, therefore, believed they would not spread from the Plant Genetic Conservation Project site in Kanchanaburi’s Sai Yok district to other parts of Thailand.
“After finding them, we checked five other nearby caves, but none hosted the Mediterranean recluse spiders,” he said.
He said statistics showed Mediterranean recluse spiders had bitten 91,820 people in Brazil and 47 of them died.
“In Thailand, there is no record that these recluse spiders have attacked anyone,” he said.
Narin said if anyone happened to suffer a spider bite, he or she should quickly clean the wound and head to a doctor.
“If possible, catch the biting spider too and show it to the doctor,” he said.