First Record of the Mediterranean Recluse Spider Loxosceles rufescens (Araneae: Sicariidae) from Iran
,
Abstract
Loxosceles rufescens, commonly known as the Mediterranean Recluse or Mediterranean Fiddle-Back Spider is recorded from Iran for the first time. The genus Loxosceles contains 103 accepted species, two of them (including L. rufescens) are cosmopolitan. All Loxosceles species tested so far possess necrotic venoms, which is a unique characteristic among the Order Araneae. Considering this characteristic, it is of medical importance to determine a specific geographical distribution of these spiders. Collecting methods include visual inspection and direct hand collecting. All of the specimens were collected in Tehran.Six specimens of both sexes were collected from parks, houses and apartments. The characteristics of the genus, which are the unique arrangement of six eyes in three diads, the violin shaped mark on the cephalothorax, and the short tibia of adult male palpi with narrow base and it’s embolus which is about as long as the width of the globular bulb were observed and recorded. Having the cytotoxicity of the venom and its urban distribution in mind, L. rufescens is probably among the more important spider species of Iran. Since there are no reports of loxoscelism from Iran, we assume that the bites are either infrequent or misdiagnosed. Therefore further studies are needed to clarify the medical importance degree of this species.
Amr ZS (1988) Arthropods of medical im- portance in Jordan. Jordan Med J. 22 (2): 125–137.
Appel MH, Bertoni da Silveira R, Gremksi W, Veiga SS (2005) Insights into brown spider and loxoscelism. Invertebrate Surviv J. 2(2): 152–158.
Bonnet P (1957) Bibliographia Araneorum. Vol.2(3). Les Frères Douladoure, Toulouse. Borkan J, Gross E, Lubin Y, Oryan I (1995)
An outbreak of venomous spider bites in a citrus grove. Am J Trop Med Hyg.52: 228–230.
Gertsch WJ (1949) American Spiders. D Van Nostrand, New York.
Gertsch WJ (1967) The spider genus Lo- xosceles in South America (Araneae, Scytodidae). Bull Am Mus Nat Hist.175: 264–360.
Gertsch WJ, Ennik F (1983) The spider genus Loxosceles in North America, Central America and the West Indies (Araneae, Loxoscelidae). Bull Am Mus Nat Hist.175: 264–360.
Ghavami S (2006) Renew checklist of spi- ders (Aranei) of Iran. Pak J Biol Sci.9(10): 1839–1851.
Goodarzi HR (1994) An introduction to the identification and classification of Iranian spiders. [MSc Thesis]. Plant Pest and Dis- ease Research Institute, Tehran, Iran.
Greene A, Breisch NL, Boardman T, Pegac Jr BB, Kunickis E, Howes RK, Brown PV (2009) The Mediterranean Recluse Spider, Loxosceles rufescens (Dufour), an abundant but cryptic inhabitant of deep infrastructure in the Washington, DC area (Arachnida: Araneae: Sica- riidae). Am Entomol. 55(3): 158–169.
Harvey M (1996) The first record of the Fiddle-Back Spider Loxosceles rufescens (Araneae: Sicariidae) from Western Aus- tralia. Rec Aus Mus. 18: 223–224.
Mirshamsi Kakhki O (2005) Faunistic study of spiders in Khorasan Province, Iran (Arachnida: Araneae). IJAB. 1(1): 55–66. Platnick NI (1989) Advances in spider tax- onomy 1981–1987. Manchester Uniersity Press, Manchester.
Platnick NI (1993) Advances in spider tax- onomy 1999–1991 with synonymies and transfers 1940–1980. New York Entomological Society, New York.
Platnick NI (2012) The world spider catalog, version 13. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Available at: http://research.amnh.org/iz/spiders/catalog. Simon E (1983) Histoire Naturelles des Araignees. Vol. 2(1). Libraire Encyclopedique de Roret, Paris.
Stefanidou MP, Chatzaki M, Lasitihiotakis KG, Ioannidou DJ, Tosca AD (2006) Necrotic arachnidism from Loxosceles rufescens harbored in Crete, Greece. J Eur Acad Dermatol. 20(4): 486–487.
Swanson DL, Vetter RS (2006) Loxoscelism.Clin Dermatol. 24(3): 213–221.
Wong RC, Hughes SE, Voorhees JJ (1987) Spider bites. Arch Dermatol. 123(1):98–110.
Yigit N, Bayram A, Ulasoglu D, Danisman T, Corakocal L, Sancak Z (2008) Loxo- sceles spider bite in Turkey (Loxosceles rufescens, Sicariidae, Araneae). J Ven- om Anim Toxins. 14(1): 178–187.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 8 No 2 (2014) | |
| Section | Case Report | |
| Keywords | ||
| cytotoxicity arachnidism loxoscelism distribution faunistics | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
