STOWAWAY SNAKES AND SPIDERS.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17678, 31 August 1929, Page 6

STOWAWAY SNAKES AND SPIDERS.

VOYAGERS IN BANANA SHIPS.

A bunch of bananas would seem to be poor cover for auy animal, and yet a surprising number of different creatu?<s3 And their way to Europe from the West Indies, and other parts of the tropics, hidden among the clusters of fruit in the holds of banana

Ships, The OOffimb'hfcst of these stowaways is the large bird-eating spider from 'South America, of which the London Zoo usually has several speeinVerfs, collected and presented by friend's ai Covdnt Garden (says the "Mol'-ni'Ag Post). Snakes come next on the li&t in order of frequency, and every year a number of both poisonous and nonpoisonous species are imported into this country in the same manner. Recently a firm of banana merchants in Walthamstow sent up a small viper to the Reptile House with the request that it should be identified and returned. One glance was sufficient for the curator to recognise it as a Fer-de-Lance, one of the most deadly of all the New W’orld vipers. The messenger was acquainted of this, and urged to leave the snake behind, where it could be properly dealt with and housed with safety. This he refused to do, as he had strict instructions to take it back to his employers. It was not long, however, before he arrived back with an urgent messa/ge that the Zoo authorities should take over his dangerous charge. Thq Fer-de-Lance has the reputation of attacking man without provocation, and it is, therefore, one of the most dreaded snakes in the West Indies and South America. It is entirely terrestrial in habit, and its reddish-

yellow markings . render it almost invisible when coiled up among the dead leaves of the' forest. It has a long and pointed tail which, when aroused, it shakes in the same way as its equally deadly cousin, the rattlesnake. No actual rattle is produced, but quick vibrations cause a rustling of the leaves, and act as a warning to the passer-by. Strangely enough on the same day Mr W. Gray found a small boa constrictor among some bananas in the Borough market and presented it to the Zoo. The boa constrictor is nonpoisonous and kills its prey by constriction. Such small specimens as are usually found in bunches of bananas are comparatively harmless; indeed, they imke quite nice pets. It is improbable that snakes which make the journey across the Atlantic in this manner And any food on the voyage, ‘but nearly all reptiles are capable of existing for many weeks without food, so that they generally arrive in good condition.

Very occasionally, small mammals hide away among freshly-picked fruit and are transhipped before they have time to escape. Of these, the elegant little mouse opossum, which ranges

from Central America down to theforests of the Amazon, most frequently arrives in this unexpected manner.. As these little creatures are almost entirely insectivorous and nocturjml,. they manage to pick up a livelihood: amongst the bales of fruit in the darkest of holds and arrive in the best of." health.