Scientists have identified the world's first venomous crustacean - and in what may come as little surprise to some, it lives in Australia. The predatory crustaceans, known as blind remipedes, liquify their prey with a highly toxic venom before sucking their newly-prepared meal from the dead critter's exoskeleton. But don't try calling them 'poisonous crabs', one of the scientists who made the discovery told the Telegraph. Dr Ronald Jenner from Britain's Natural History Museum said the venomous remipede is neither poisonous, nor a crab: "Poison and venom are two very separate things. Venoms are delivered actively by a bite with fangs, or by a spine, or by claws, or injected into something, whereas poison is usually passively delivered — you eat it, you get sick or die." As for the "crab" moniker, remipedes belong to the same family as crabs but crabs they are not. They are closer, in fact, to insects — the born predators combine a blood-curdling hypodermic injection mechanism with powerful prehensile limbs and long, ever-scouring antennae to catch and kill their prey. Read more http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...t-venomous-crustacean-found-in-Australia.html
