From my surface level understanding, when spiders bite into insects (or other spiders), the venom they inject “liquifies” the insides of the prey. The spider then sucks up that liquified goop leaving behind effectively an empty shell.
Is this the same when spiders catch say, bats or birds? Would the venom liquifying the insides of those animals too for the spider to suck up, leaving behind effectively just the skeleton and the skin?
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Venom is very complicated. They are all composed of a wide variety of proteins which have different actions in different organisms. Generally speaking, the liquefying effect is pretty universal. Insects, and other animals with exoskeletons leave their husk behind because it is stiff and rigid. The equivalent for mammals and other vertebrates is their skeleton, which is also intact after a spider bite. The venom does liquefy other animals, but not quite to the same effect generally speaking. Usually the larger the animal the more dilute the venom and, even if it kills the animal, the less damage it will do to the tissue.
Spider Venom is not usually the same as the digestive enzymes they inject to feed. Most any bug without chewing mouthparts to break solid tissues down into bite size pieces will inject digestive enzymes into prey to break down the connective tissue so they can suck up their prey. This largely works the same on larger animals that aren’t bugs, but usually bites on these types of larger creatures are not feeding responses so enzymes are not usually injected on the same level.
Venom however can and is often used offensively and defensively. Venom typically works to either disrupt or destroy. Disrupting chemical receptors and transmitters can cause the victim’s body processes to stop working, with paralysis or debilitating pain being a common effect. In destructive cases the venom uses chemical reactions to break down or disable parts of the body in a way that incapacitates them, with swelling or even necrosis of the tissue around the bite being a common side effect in people on top of the obvious pain that causes.
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