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BugGuide.net is a website where arthropod photographs submitted by the public are identified by professional and amateur entomologists. In April 2023 posts containing "bitten" or "stung" were reviewed. Of 39 verified bites, 10 were blood-feeding insects. Others included 9 Heteroptera, 6 spiders, 6 lacewings. 110 posts of stings included 44 social Hymenoptera, 33 solitary Hymenoptera, 5 Heteroptera, 20 caterpillars and 4 scorpions. Injury from lacewing larvae, true bugs, solitary Hymenoptera and caterpillars was unexpectedly common., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We present the case of a 32-year-old male patient hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic because of a Brown spider bite on his lower lip. The Brown spider accident occurred in southern Brazil; at hospital admission, the patient presented on his lip: edema, pustules, necrotic regions, and ulcerations. The patient complained of lower back pain, fever and dyspnea. Laboratory tests showed monocytosis, leukocytosis, neutrophilia, increased D-dimer levels, C-reactive protein, glutamate-pyruvate transaminase, delta bilirubin, creatine phosphokinase, procalcitonin, and fibrinogen. The patient was hospitalized and a multi-professional team carried out the treatment. The medical team diagnosed loxoscelism with moderate changes. The dentist treated the oral cavity. The patient began to develop nausea, vomiting, and desaturation episodes during hospitalization. A computed tomography of the chest was performed, which showed signs of viral infection. The RT-PCR test for COVID-19 was positive. The systemic conditions worsened (renal dysfunction, systemic inflammatory response, pulmonary complications). This condition may have resulted from the association of the two diseases (loxoscelism and COVID-19), leading to the patient's death. This case illustrates the difficulties and risks in treating patients with venomous animal accidents during the pandemic, and the importance of a multi-professional team in treating such cases., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Black widow spiders (Latrodectus spp.) are generally perceived as inhabiting southern or western United States. However, some species, such as the northern black widow, Latrodectus variolus, are also found in more temperate regions of USA and adjacent Canada. This species also appears to expand its range northward with the climate change increasing the risk of human encounters. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of a pediatric envenomation from a northern black widow bite in northeastern US. Medical practitioners often fail to recognize the signs and symptoms of latrodectism delaying effective treatment. Even in more northern locales, healthcare workers should take black widow spider envenomation under consideration in the differential diagnosis particularly with suspected exposure., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Antivenom is the only effective therapy for treating any envenomation. Despite its obvious public health importance, the laborious process of procuring, distributing and controlling the quality of such immunobiologicals is being neglected. Brazil is fully self-sufficient in the production of antivenoms. Since the 1950s, Loxoscelism, a syndrome with an onset after a spider bite from specimens of the Loxosceles genus occurs, is considered a public health issue. The Brazilian history in developing antivenom therapy, its production hindrances, and other challenges are discussed in this paper, as well as some promising novelties that can improve production and processing of Loxosceles antivenom., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We present a case from Valencia, Spain, of a 25-year-old woman who presented with a painful erythematous skin lesion, initially diagnosed as cellulitis. The lesion was unresponsive to antibiotic treatments and progressed into a hemorrhagic blister with necrotic ulcer formation. Posterior collection of a spider from the patient's home and expert identification of the spider as Loxosceles rufescens was achieved, establishing the diagnosis of probable cutaneous loxoscelism. Symptomatic treatment, general wound care and ultimately surgery, resulted in complete recovery with minor residual scarring. This case illustrates some of the difficulties encountered in the diagnosis and treatment of loxoscelism and adds to the increasing reports of loxoscelism in the Mediterranean Basin., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Antibody technologies are being increasingly applied in the field of toxinology. Fuelled by the many advances in immunology, synthetic biology, and antibody research, different approaches and antibody formats are being investigated for the ability to neutralize animal toxins. These different molecular formats each have their own therapeutic characteristics. In this review, we provide an overview of the advances made in the development of toxin-targeting antibodies, and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of different antibody formats in relation to their ability to neutralize toxins, pharmacokinetic features, propensity to cause adverse reactions, formulation, and expression for research and development (R&D) purposes and large-scale manufacturing. A research trend seems to be emerging towards the use of human antibody formats as well as camelid heavy-domain antibody fragments due to their compatibility with the human immune system, beneficial therapeutic properties, and the ability to manufacture these molecules cost-effectively., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Bites of tiger spiders belonging to Poecilotheria genus cause moderate to severe pain and long-lasting local or generalized muscle cramps in humans. Bites occur in regions of the spiders' natural habitat, India and Sri Lanka, but the popularity of these colorful tarantulas as pets leads to reports of envenomation cases worldwide. Treatment is predominantly symptomatic and often inadequate since there is almost no clinical or toxicology research data available, and physicians outside India or Sri Lanka typically have no experience in treating such cases. We report toxicity studies of venom from nine Poecilotheria species in laboratory mice (Mus musculus Balb/C males). LD 50 values are 5-14 mg of lyophilized crude venom per 1 kg (i.v.). The major symptoms of envenomation include tonic-clonic seizures, jerks, characteristic motor stereotypy, and hyperalgesia and point to voltage-gated sodium channels as a potential target of the venom components. Poecilotheria fasciata venom effects were studied in detail at a sub-lethal dose of 5 mg/kg (LD 50  = 12 mg/kg). 13 widely used pharmacological agents (atropine, chloropyramine, chlorpromazine, diazepam, ethanol, flupirtine, haloperidol, ketotifen, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, tolperisone, xylazine, and CaCl 2 ) were checked for ability to suppress the envenomation symptoms. Chlorpromazine (10 mg/kg, i.p.), oxcarbazepine (60 mg/kg, p.o.), tolperisone (50 mg/kg, s.c.) and xylazine (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) were found effective as a pretreatment to mitigate muscle cramps and motor stereotypy. When administered after envenomation chlorpromazine (5 mg/kg, i.v.) effectively reduced the cramps, while oxcarbazepine (30 mg/kg, i.v.) and xylazine (1 mg/kg, i.v.) suppressed the stereotypy., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)