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During the winter of 2014-15 in southern California, attempts were made to accelerate immature brown recluse spiders, Loxosceles reclusa Gertsch & Mulaik, 1940, to maturity for a pest control experiment in early spring. Despite food offerings, spiders stopped molting after October although they were maintained at 25° C and had swollen, well-nourished abdomens. It was surmised that decreased filtered daylight from a paper-covered window might be suppressing molting. Feeding was halted in January 2015; 88 spiderlings were checked weekly for molts. Molting resumed during late March 2015 and continued through May 2015 despite no feedings. To more thoroughly elucidate photoperiod effects on molting, during the week of the September 2015 equinox, three cohorts of 10 immatures of both brown and Chilean recluses, L. laeta (Nicolet, 1849), were exposed to three light regimes: 14:10 L:D, natural, 10:14 L:D. Through November 2015 to late March 2016 for brown recluses, there was no molting in the 10:14 regime, 3 of 10 spiders molted in the natural light regime, and 8 of 10 spiders molted in the 14:10 L:D regime. Additionally, fifteen newly-emerged brown recluse spiderlings split into three cohorts of 5 spiders each in November exhibited more molting in the 14:10 L:D compared to natural and 10:14 L:D light cycles. Chilean recluses showed no differences in molting across the three photoperiod regimes. This species difference may be explained in that brown recluses are native to temperate zones where winters can be fatal; Chilean recluses are tropical where short photoperiods may have little significance for survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Acute-on-chronic liver failure is a syndrome associated with a high short-term mortality rate. Severe systemic inflammation and single- and multiple-organ failure are a hallmark of this syndrome, with pro-inflammatory precipitating events occurring in the liver or extrahepatic regions. We report a case of a 69-year-old man with a previous diagnosis of alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis who presented with a poorly defined, erythematous-purplish, and edematous plaque with multiple hemorrhagic blisters over the left leg, one day after receiving a spider bite. During the following hours, the skin lesion progressed, and the patient developed hepatic encephalopathy, respiratory failure, and arterial hypotension, requiring the administration of vasopressors; blood analysis revealed hypercreatininemia, an elevated international normalized ratio (INR) value, and hyperbilirubinemia. The patient was diagnosed with acute-on-chronic liver failure caused by cutaneous loxoscelism. There was no hemolytic anemia, rhabdomyolysis, or disseminated intravascular coagulation in the patient, thus excluding the possibility of visceral loxoscelism., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Alvarez-Rubio et al.) more...

The taxonomic status of the medically important spider genus Loxosceles Heineken et Lowe, 1832 (Sicariidae) in Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan is revised. Two species are described as new to science: Loxosceles coheni sp. n. (♂♀, southwestern Iran) and Loxosceles turanensis sp. n. (♂♀, southern Turkmenistan and eastern Iran). Additionally, Loxosceles alicea Gertsch, 1967 syn. n. (♀, Peru) is synonymized with Loxosceles rufescens (Dufour, 1820). The local distribution of all treated species is mapped (including several new records), and reported cases of loxoscelism from this region are briefly reviewed., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.) more...