Zambia – Deadly Insects – Tsetse Fly – 1000 Kwacha – 2010 – Proof Colored Coin – Tsetse flies, are large biting flies that inhabit much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals. Tsetse have been extensively studied because of their disease transmission. Fossilized tsetse have been recovered from the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado, supposedly laid down some 34 million years ago. Diseases transmitted by tsetse flies kill 250,000–300,000 people per year.

Zambia – Deadly Insects – Black Widow Spider – 1000 Kwacha – 2010 – Proof Colored Coin – Latrodectus is a genus of spider, in the family Theridiidae, which contains 32 recognized species. The common name widow spiders is sometimes applied to members of the genus due to the behavior of the female of eating the male after mating, although sometimes the males of some species are not eaten after mating, and can go on to fertilize other females. The black widow spiders are perhaps the best-known members of the genus. The injection of neurotoxic venom latrotoxin from these species is a comparatively dangerous spider bite, resulting in the condition latrodectism, named for the genus. The female black widow’s bite is particularly harmful to humans because of its unusually large venom glands; however, Latrodectus bites rarely kill human beings if their wounds are given medical treatment. The prevalence of sexual cannibalism in Latrodectus by a female spider has inspired the common name “black widow spider”. The female Latrodectus most of the time eat their male Latrodectus partners after mating. The clue to this fact is due to the potency of venom in female species, which is at least three times more potent than that of the males. Therefore, even if a male bites in self defense while being himself bitten by the female, he would succumb to his death more rapidly and has therefore more chance of being eaten. The Researchers at the University of Hamburg in Germany found that male orb-web spiders make this ultimate evolutionary sacrifice for the good health of his offspring.