New record of the Mediterranean Recluse Spider Loxosceles rufescens (Dufour, 1820) and its bite from Khorasan Province, northeast of Iran (Aranei: Sicariidae)

Abstract

The ecribellate haplogyne spiders of the genus Loxosceles Heineken & Lowe, 1832, known as recluse <br><br>or violin spiders, are well known because of their ability to occasionally cause significant skin <br><br>necrosis also known as loxoscelism (Vetter, 2008; Saupe et al., 2011). The venom of these spiders <br><br>contains an unusual enzyme, sphingomyelinase D, which, when incorporated into the skin and <br><br>subcutaneous tissues, ultimately causes platelet aggregation, endothelial hyperpermeability, <br><br>hemolysis, and neutrophil-dependent skin necrosis (Saupe et al., 2011). <br><br>Based on the morphology of their spinnerets these spiders are now classified in the sub-family <br><br>Loxoscelinae, in the Sicariidae (Gertsch 1949; Gertsch, 1967; Gertsch and Ennik 1983; Vetter, <br><br>2008). The family Sicariidae currently includes spiders of only two genera, Loxosceles with more than <br><br>100, and Sicarius Walckenaer, 1847 with more than 21 described species respectively (Platnick, 2013). <br><br>The Mediterranean recluse, L. rufescens (Dufour 1820), is a widely distributed species, originating <br><br>from somewhere in the circum-Mediterranean region but has been distributed to other regions by <br><br>means of human activity (Harvey, 1996). This species is now reported from Mediterranean countries <br><br>and other regions including Turkmenistan, East Asia, United States and Australia (Harvey, 1996; <br><br>Yigit et al., 2008). There were unidentified records of the genus Loxosceles from Iran (Goodarzi, <br><br>1994; Moradmand and Jäger, 2011; Kashefi et al., 2013) but, the first record of the Mediterranean <br><br>recluse spider, L. rufescens, was provided by Zamani and Rafinejad (in press) from Tehran Province. <br><br>This species is distinguished from its closely related species by the following characteristics: the tibia <br><br>of male’s palp is short, thick and not very prolonged. The embolus is about as long as the width of <br><br>the globular bulb (Fig.1, 3); paired spermathecae, closed together at the midline, with single large and <br><br>rounded lobe (Fig. 2, 4). <br><br>In this paper we provided a new data on the geographic distribution of L. rufescens and its <br><br>envenomation from northeast of Iran (Fig. 5). All specimens were collected in daytime from houses. <br><br>The examined specimens are preserved in the Zoological Museum, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, <br><br>Mashhad, Iran (ZMFUM). Whole specimens, male palps and vulva were photographed using an <br><br>Olympus DP-71 camera connected to an Olympus SZH-10 stereomicroscope. The vulvas were <br><br>macerated either with KOH or lactic acid.