Meg has been collecting some spitting spiders (in this case, Scytodes thoracica), for me for some time now. Spitting spiders are easy to care for. A small fly for food, once a week or so, is all they need in the way of food and drink. They are not fussy about accommodations, as long as their habitat is dry and free of predators — such as triangulate house spiders and, yes, other spitters, which are not at all reluctant about eating one another. [...]
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Recluse spiders are, well… reclusive. They are not easy to find unless the home is absolutely infested with them, to the point that that they have trouble finding places to hide that aren’t already loaded with other brown recluse spiders. This home was neat as a pin, and had absolutely no obvious clutter where brown recluse spiders could secret themselves away from the sight of humans with strong flashlights. [...] The southern house spider (Kukulcania hibernalis) was first described in 1842 by the French American arachnologist Nicholas Marcellus Hentz. In the 1875 book “The Spiders of the United States, a collection of The Arachnological Writings of Nicholas Marcellus Hentz,” he is quoted on this species in these words: [...] A total of five genera and 169 species of spitting spiders, all in the Scytodidae family, are presently recognized. Of these, one genus (Scytodes) and 7 species are known to be found in North America. One species, Scytodes thoracica, is relatively common… [...] Most of the photos used in this article were taken during inspection and collection visits to locations in Joplin, Missouri, Grove Oklahoma, and various locations in Collin, Hays, Parker, Tarrant, Travis, and Wise Counties, within the state of Texas… [...] Researchers analyzing venoms from spiders in the genus Loxosceles succeeded in identifying–as early as 1981–the toxin Sphingomyelinase D (SMaseD) as a sufficient cause of the dermonecrotic lesions that bites from these spiders produce in humans. The mode of action involves cleavage within the molecular structure of the eukaryotic membrane phospholipid sphingomyelin. Normal cleavages of phospholipids are necessary housekeeping processes for maintenance of healthy tissues, but when abnormal, wholesale cleavages occur in sphingomyelin, specifically between the choline and phosphate junction–i.e., at the D site–the result is actual tissue necrosis, or cell death. [...]
— BugsInTheNews is a VIEWER-PARTICIPANT WEBSITE. This article by Jerry Cates and Ralph E., first published in June 2007, was revised last on 7 July 2012. © Bugsinthenews Vol. 8:06 —————————— Related Links: Brown recluse Anatomy Brown recluse encounters in Austin, Texas Brown recluse behavior; encounters in Joplin [...] Tom sent me this photograph of a brown recluse spider his wife had earlier found in their garage, on 09 December 2008. Earlier, along with some photos of a green lynx spider, Tom mentioned that his wife had found a recluse spider in a box of blankets stored in the garage, and offered to provide photos. In 28 years of collecting spiders in Central Texas, including the area around Lake Travis [...] This brown recluse spider was found in a shop in north central Collin County, Texas on 18 January 2010. It may have come in via boxed equipment and supplies, or from the outside. If from the outside, we can expect more to drop in from time to time… [...] The brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) is one of thirteen species of recluse spiders recognized in the genus Loxosceles that are native to North America. The genus is distributed worldwide, and a total of 100 species of recluse spiders have been descri… [...] |
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