| Brown recluse spider | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Araneae |
| Family: | Sicariidae |
| Genus: | Loxosceles |
| Species: | L. reclusa |
| Binomial name | |
| Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch & Mulaik, 1940 |
|
The brown recluse spider or violin spider, Loxosceles reclusa, Sicariidae (formerly placed in a family "Loxoscelidae") is a spider with venomous bite.
Brown recluse spiders are usually between 6–20 mm (1⁄4 in and 3⁄4 in), but may grow larger. While typically light to medium brown, they range in color from cream-colored to dark brown or blackish gray. The cephalothorax and abdomen may not necessarily be the same color. These spiders usually have markings on the dorsal side of their cephalothorax, with a black line coming from it that looks like a violin with the neck of the violin pointing to the rear of the spider, resulting in the nicknames fiddleback spider, brown fiddler or violin spider.
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Since the violin pattern is not diagnostic, and other spiders may have similar markings (such as cellar spiders and pirate spiders), for more assurance in identification it is imperative to examine the eyes. Most spiders have eight eyes; recluse spiders have six eyes arranged in pairs (dyads) with one median pair and two lateral pairs. Only a few other spiders have three pairs of eyes arranged in this way (e.g., scytodids). Recluses have no obvious coloration patterns on the abdomen or legs, and the legs lack spines.[1] The abdomen is covered with fine short hairs that, when viewed without magnification, give it the appearance of soft fur. The leg joints may appear to be a slightly lighter color.
Adult brown recluse spiders often live about one to two years. Each female produces several egg sacs over a period of two to three months, from May to July, with approximately fifty eggs in each sac. The eggs hatch in about one month. The spiderlings take about one year to grow to adulthood. The brown recluse spider is resilient, and can tolerate up to six months of extreme drought and scarcity or absence of food, most notably observed on one occasion to survive in controlled captivity for over five seasons without food.[2]
A brown recluse's stance on a flat surface is usually with all legs radially extended. When alarmed it may lower its body, withdraw the forward two legs straight rearward into a defensive position, withdraw the rearmost pair of legs into a position for lunging forward, and stand motionless with pedipalps raised. The pedipalps in mature specimens are dark, quite prominent, and are normally held horizontally forward. When threatened it usually flees, seemingly to avoid a conflict, and if detained may further avoid contact with quick horizontal rotating movements. The spider does not usually jump unless touched brusquely, and even then its avoidance movement is more of a horizontal lunge rather than a vaulting of itself entirely off the surface. When running the brown recluse does not appear to leave a silk line behind, which at any rate might make it more easily tracked when it is being pursued. Movement at virtually any speed is an evenly paced gait with legs extended. When missing a leg or two it appears to favor this same gait, although (presumably when a leg has been injured) it may move and stand at rest with one leg slightly withdrawn. During travel it stops naturally and periodically when renewing its internal hydraulic blood pressure that, like most spiders, it requires to renew strength in the legs.
Recluse spiders build irregular webs that frequently include a shelter consisting of disorderly threads. The wild variety lives in the southern states ranging from central Texas to western Georgia, and the domestic variety lives in the lower reaches of the Midwest. They frequently build their webs in woodpiles and sheds, closets, garages, plenum, cellars and other places that are dry and generally undisturbed. When dwelling in human residences they seem to favor cardboard, possibly because it mimics the rotting tree bark which they inhabit naturally. They have also been encountered in shoes, inside dressers, in bed sheets of infrequently used beds, in clothes stacked or piled or left lying on the floor, inside work gloves, behind baseboards and pictures, in toilets, and near sources of warmth when ambient temperatures are lower than usual. Human-recluse contact often occurs when such isolated spaces are disturbed and the spider feels threatened. Unlike most web weavers, they leave these lairs at night to hunt. Males move around more when hunting than do females, which tend to remain nearer to their webs.
The brown recluse spider is native to the United States from the southern Midwest south to the Gulf of Mexico. The native range lies roughly south of a line from southeastern Nebraska through southern Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana to southwestern Ohio. In the southern states, it is native from central Texas to western Georgia and north to Kentucky.[3][4]
Despite rumors to the contrary, the brown recluse spider has not established itself in California or anywhere outside its native range.[5] Occasional spiders have been intercepted in various states where they have no known established populations; these spiders may be transported fairly easily, though the lack of established populations well outside the natural range also indicates that such movement has not led to colonization of new areas.[6][7]
There are other species of the genus Loxosceles native to the southwestern part of the United States, including California, that may resemble the brown recluse, but these species have never been documented as medically significant. The number of "false positive" reports based on misidentifications is considerable; in a nationwide study where people submitted spiders that they thought were brown recluses, of 581 from California only 1 was a brown recluse—submitted by a family that moved from Missouri and brought it with them (compared to specimens submitted from Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, where between 75% and 90% were recluses).[8] From this study, the most common spider submitted from California as a brown recluse was in the genus Titiotus, whose bite is deemed harmless. A similar study documented that various arachnids were routinely misidentified by physicians, pest control operators, and other non-expert authorities, who told their patients or clients that the spider they had was a brown recluse when in fact it was not.[9] Despite the absence of brown recluses from the Western U.S., physicians in the region commonly diagnose "brown recluse bites", leading to the popular misperception that the spiders occur there.[10]
As suggested by its specific epithet reclusa ("recluse"), the brown recluse spider is rarely aggressive, and actual bites from the species are uncommon. In 2001, more than 2,000 brown recluse spiders were removed from a heavily infested home in Kansas, yet the four residents who had lived there for years were never harmed by the spiders, despite many encounters with them.[11] The spider usually bites only when pressed against the skin, such as when tangled up within clothes, towels, bedding, inside work gloves, etc. Many human victims of brown recluse bites report having been bitten after putting on clothes that had not recently been worn or had been left for many days undisturbed on the floor.
The initial brown recluse bite frequently is not felt and may not be immediately painful, but can be serious. However, the fangs of the brown recluse are so tiny they are unable to penetrate most fabric, including socks.[12]
The brown recluse bears a potentially deadly hemotoxic venom. Most bites are minor with no necrosis. However, a small number of clinically-diagnosed brown recluse bites do produce severe dermonecrotic lesions (i.e., necrosis); an even smaller number of clinically-diagnosed brown recluse bites produce severe cutaneous (skin) or viscerocutaneous (systemic) symptoms. In one study of clinically-diagnosed brown recluse bites, the incidence of skin necrosis was 37% and the incidence of systemic illness was 14%.[13] In these instances the bites produced a range of symptoms common to many members of the Loxosceles genus known as loxoscelism, which may be cutaneous (skin) and viscerocutaneous (systemic). In very rare cases, bites can even cause hemolysis (causes red blood cells to burst).[14]
Most brown recluse spiders' bites do not result in necrosis or systemic effects. When both types of loxoscelism do result, systemic effects may occur before necrosis, as the venom spreads throughout the body in minutes. Debilitated patients, the elderly, and children may be more susceptible to systemic loxoscelism. The systemic symptoms that are most commonly experienced as the result of a brown recluse bite include nausea, vomiting, fever, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. Rarely, such bites can result in hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, organ damage, and even death.[15] Most fatalities are children under the age of seven[16] or those with a weaker-than-normal immune system.
While it is important to note that the majority of brown recluse spider bites do not result in any symptoms, cutaneous symptoms occur as a result of such bites more frequently than systemic symptoms. In such instances, the bite forms a necrotizing ulcer that destroys soft tissue and may take months to heal, leaving deep scars. These bites usually become painful and itchy within 2 to 8 hours, pain and other local effects worsen 12 to 36 hours after the bite, and the necrosis develops over the next few days.[17] Over time, the wound may grow to as large as 25 cm (10 inches) in extreme cases. The damaged tissue becomes gangrenous and eventually sloughs away.
It is estimated that 80% of reported brown recluse bites may be misdiagnosed. The misdiagnosis of a wound as a brown recluse bite could delay proper treatment of serious diseases.[4] There is now an ELISA-based test for brown recluse venom that can determine whether a wound is a brown recluse bite, although it is not commercially available and not in routine clinical use; clinical diagnoses often use Occam's razor principle in diagnosing bites based on what spiders the patient likely encountered and what previous diagnoses are similar.[4][13][18]
There are numerous documented infectious and noninfectious conditions (including pyoderma gangrenosum, bacterial infections by Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, herpes, diabetic ulcer, fungal infections, chemical burns, toxicodendron dermatitis, squamous cell carcinoma, localized vasculitis, syphilis, toxic epidermal necrolysis, sporotrichosis, and Lyme disease) that produce wounds that have been initially misdiagnosed as recluse bites by medical professionals; many of these conditions are far more common and more likely to be the source of mysterious necrotic wounds, even in areas where recluses actually occur.[4] The most important of these is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ("MRSA"), a bacterium whose necrotic lesions are very similar to those induced by recluse bites, and which can be lethal if left untreated;[19] misdiagnoses of MRSA as "spider bites" are extremely common (nearly 30% of patients later documented to have MRSA initially reported that they suspected a spider bite), and can have fatal consequences.[20] In addition, published work has shown that tick-induced Lyme disease rashes are often misidentified as brown recluse spider bites.[21]
Reported cases of bites occur primarily in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. There have been many reports of brown recluse bites in California (though a few related species may be found there and elsewhere outside the range of the brown recluse, none of these are known to bite humans[5]). To date the reports of bites from areas outside of the spider's native range have been either unverified, or—if verified—the spiders have been moved to those locations by travelers or commerce. Many arachnologists believe that many bites attributed to the brown recluse in the West Coast are not spider bites at all or possibly the bites of other spider species. For example, the bite of the hobo spider has been reported to produce similar symptoms, and is found in the northwestern United States and southern British Columbia. However, the toxicity of hobo spider venom has been called into question as bites have not been proven to cause necrosis, and this spider is not considered a problem in Europe.[22]
Numerous other spiders have been associated with necrotic bites in medical literature. Other recluse species, such as the desert recluse (found in the desert southwestern United States), are reported to have caused necrotic bite wounds, though only rarely.[23] Other spiders that have been reported to cause necrotic bites include the hobo spider and the yellow sac spiders. However, the bites from these spiders are not known to produce the severe symptoms that often follow from a recluse spider bite, and the level of danger posed by each has been called into question.[24][25] So far, no known necrotoxins have been isolated from the venom of any of these spiders, and some arachnologists have disputed the accuracy of many spider identifications carried out by bite victims, family members, medical responders, and other non-experts in arachnology. There have been several studies questioning the danger posed by some of these spiders. In these studies, scientists examined case studies of bites in which the spider in question was positively identified by an expert, and found that the incidence of necrotic injury diminished significantly when "questionable" identifications were excluded from the sample set.[26][27] (For a comparison of the toxicity of several kinds of spider bites, see the list of spiders having medically significant venom.)
First aid involves the application of an ice pack to control inflammation, the application of aloe vera to soothe and help control the pain, and prompt medical care. If it can be easily captured, the spider should be brought with the patient in a clear, tightly closed container so it may be identified.
Routine treatment should include elevation and immobilization of the affected limb, application of ice, local wound care, and tetanus prophylaxis. Many other therapies have been used with varying degrees of success including hyperbaric oxygen, dapsone, antihistamines (e.g., cyproheptadine), antibiotics, dextran, glucocorticoids, vasodilators, heparin, nitroglycerin, electric shock, curettage, surgical excision, and antivenom.[28][29] None of these treatments have been subjected to randomized controlled trials to conclusively show benefit. In almost all cases, bites are self-limited and typically heal without any medical intervention.[4]
Cases of brown recluse venom traveling along a limb through a vein or artery are rare, but the resulting tissue mortification can affect an area as large as several inches and in extreme cases require excising of the wound.
In presumed cases of recluse bites, dapsone is often used effectively for the treatment of necrosis, but controlled clinical trials do not demonstrate similar effectiveness;[30] however, dapsone may be effective at treating many "spider bites" because many such cases are actually misdiagnosed microbial infections.[31] There have been conflicting reports about its efficacy and some have suggested it should no longer be used routinely, if at all.[32]A home remedy is cutting a potato in half and taping to the wound for a few hours.
Wound infection is rare. Antibiotics are not recommended unless there is a credible diagnosis of infection.[33]
Studies have shown that surgical intervention is ineffective and may worsen outcome. Excision may delay wound healing, cause abscesses, and lead to objectionable scarring.[34]
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the application of nitroglycerin patches can be beneficial.[35] Brown recluse venom is a vasoconstrictor, and nitroglycerin causes vasodilation that allows the venom to be diluted into the bloodstream and fresh blood to flow to the wound. Theoretically this prevents necrosis, as vasoconstriction may contribute to necrosis. However, one scientific animal study found no benefit in preventing necrosis, with the study's results showing it increased inflammation and caused symptoms of systemic envenoming. The authors concluded the results of the study did not support the use of topical nitroglycerin in brown recluse envenoming. [36]
Antivenom, available in South America for the venom of other species of recluse spiders, appears to be the most promising therapy. However, antivenoms are most effective if given early. Because of the often painless bite patients do not often present symptoms until 24 or more hours after the event of a brown recluse bite, possibly limiting the effect of this intervention.[37]
Due to the emphasized fear of these spiders ever since the increase of public awareness in recent years, extermination of domestic brown recluses is performed frequently in the lower Midwest. Brown recluse spiders possess a variety of adaptations, including the abilities to maintain homeostasis for several seasons with no food or water and to survive after losing limbs.[38] Additionally, the spiders survive significantly longer in a relatively cool, thermally stable environment.[39]
The increased abilities of the spiders to survive during times of starvation, thirst, and regulated room temperatures makes extermination of this species particularly challenging. Many chemicals which have proven effective have now been made illegal or restricted in the U.S., making the use of chemicals to eradicate the spiders impractical.[38] Chemicals that do not kill the spider may cause disruption to its nervous system or other systems, inducing undesirable aggressive behavior.[38]