Exchange re: Tarantulas

Email exchange between my sister and me:

Me:

Tag from an article in my science magazine, unaltered:

A new medical case report reaffirms why even largely non-venomous tarantulas can make questionable pets. Some respond to stress by expelling a cloud of barbed hairs that can lodge in especially vulnerable tissues. Like your eyeball.

AAAAAAAAAGH!

[Ed. note: "AAAAAAAAAGH!" mine.]


My sister:

AAAAAAAAAGH!

Yikes! What makes 'em think they can do us like that?

In a more serious vein (the aorta), what kind of evolutionary advantage is that? On the way to Predator X's mouth, tarantula expels stinging hair cloud. Frenzied, Predator X eats spider anyway. Later, in the grips of fiery diarrhea from EATING A SPIDER, Predator X fails to notice that his eyes hurt. Tarantula genes removed from pool. Evolution stops.

Later: Darwin debunked; origin of life controversy over. Creationists win, rejoice; Darwinians lynched. Creationists then sucked into sky after "second coming." Non-believers inherit the earth. Earth expires and turns into moldy goo in 2 weeks. Life begins anew.

I love my sister so much.