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Dr. Michel Dugon, zoologist and host of RTE's educational programme 'Bug Hunters' recently delivered a presentation to the students from the Department of Science and Health at Institute of Technology Carlow about ‘The False Widow Steatoda nobilis’. Dr. Dugon enlightened students with an interactive presentation complete with real life spiders and scorpions.
Dr. Kieran Germaine, lecturer in Biosciences at Institute of Technology Carlow welcomed Dr. Dugon to the Institute and commented that ‘Dr. Dugon’s research has shown the venom from the Irish false Black widow spider has neurotoxic, cytotoxic and haemotoxic properties and he is investigating the potential of this toxin to help identify and attack cancer cells. The False Widow spider is known to bite people in rare cases but as Dr. Dugon strenuously points out, there is really no need to be overly concerned about these spiders as they are extremely shy and even if you do get bitten, in the vast majority of cases it will be no worse than the sting from a bee’.
There are over 45,000 known species of spider, 400 of which are found in Ireland.
Pictured: L - R: Dr. Kieran Germaine, lecturer in Biosciences at Institute of Technology Carlow with Dr. Michel Dugon, zoologist and host of RTE's educational programme 'Bug Hunters' .
ENDS