Chili Pepper Spiders?

` I came across a Nature article that I thought was both interesting and almost bizarre!
` It turns out that the venom of the West Indian tarantula (Psalmopoeus cambridgei), has the ability to cause pain and inflammation in the same way that chili peppers do! The receptors that are sensitive to the capsaicin of hot peppers are also triggered by three peptides found in the tarantula's venom!

` It seems that these large spiders have stumbled upon the same mechanism as a plant with small, round berries to deter would-be predators! However, the peptides in the tarantula venom cause an excitory response while similarly-structured peptides that bind to other ion channels are inhibitory. Thus, they are somewhat unusual.