why do some small spiders have powerful enough venom to kill 4 elephants when they mostly eat small insects?

Question

why do some small spiders have powerful enough venom to kill 4 elephants when they mostly eat small insects?

In: 1

Answer 1

If you tag a prey animal and it survives long enough to get away you’ve wasted your time.

If it survives long enough to fight, you may have wasted your life.

To mitigate that risk, a lot of venomous ambush predators like snakes and spiders have developed massive overkill dosage – they pump enough venom into their target to make sure it’s ultradead ultrafast. No fuss, no fight.