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.
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