Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2020 | 12(10): 16385–16388

 

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5796.12.10.16385-16388    

#5796 | Received 22 February 2020 | Finally accepted 16 July 2020

 

 

 

First records of the black widow spider Latrodectus elegans Thorell, 1898  (Araneae: Theridiidae) from Nepal

 

Binu Shrestha 1 & Tobias Dörr 2

 

1,2 1037 Hanshaw Road, Ithaca NY, 14850, USA.

1 21 Ghumti Kumari Marg, Purano Bhaneswor, 44600 Kathmandu, Nepal.

1 binunine@hotmail.com, 2 tdoerr@cornell.edu (corresponding author)

 

 

 

Editor: John Caleb, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India.     Date of publication: 26 July 2020 (online & print)

 

Citation: Shrestha, B. & T. Dorr (2020). First records of the black widow spider Latrodectus elegans Thorell, 1898  (Araneae: Theridiidae) from Nepal. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(10): 16385–16388. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5796.12.10.16385-16388

 

Copyright: © Shrestha & Dorr 2020. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: None.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: We thank Alexander and Henning Rose for readily communicating location information and providing pictures of Latrodectus elegans from Manaslu.  We further thank Dr. Bhola Meher Shrestha for field trips in Nepal and for help with Nepali translation.

 

 

 

The black widow spiders of the genus Latrodectus  Walckenaer, 1805 (32 species) have a nearly worldwide distribution and are among the medically most significant spiders, with the bites of some species (particularly L. mactans (Fabricius, 1775), L. hasselti Thorell, 1870  and L. tredecimguttatus (Rossi, 1790)) causing significant morbidity and mortality in their distribution range (Jelinek 1997; Garb et al. 2004; Ryan et al. 2017).  This exceptionally successful genus has settled on almost all continents (except Antarctica) and some species now (likely due to anthropogenic dissemination) have an almost cosmopolitan distribution (e.g., L. geometricus C.L. Koch, 1848) (Gonzalez et al. 2004).  While the majority of species are found in Africa/Middle East (~13 species) and North/South Americas (11 species) (World Spider Catalog 2020), southern and southeastern Asia exhibit a relatively low Latrodectus species diversity (three species).  Among the Asian species, L. erythromelas Schmidt & Klaas, 1991 has an uncharacteristically narrow distribution range (Sri Lanka and southern India: Schmidt & Klaas 1991; Srinivasulu et al. 2013), while L. hasselti appears in southern Asia at the western edge of its vast distribution area (Srinivasulu et al. 2013), which also includes Australia and New Zealand (Garb et al. 2004).  The third species native to southern Asia, L elegans, ranges from India, Burma and China to Japan (Yoshida 2009).  This species has only been recorded from southern Asia (India) relatively recently (Kananbala et al. 2012), perhaps reflecting historical undersurveying of arachnids in this region.  This is particularly true for Nepal, with the most recent summary publication listing only 175 species of spiders (Thapa 1995), undoubtedly an underestimate.  Contributions to the diversity of the Nepali spider fauna thus fill an important knowledge gap in biodiversity estimates.  Nepal shares borders with both India (in the south, east and west) and China (in the north) and is a biodiversity hotspot due to its variety of altitudes that create a diversity of microclimate and vegetation zones across the country.  During a trip to Nepal in April 2016, we observed several apparent members of the genus Latrodectus, one of which was clearly identifiable as L. elegans.  These observations are described herein and contextualized with a previous (historical) record for the genus in Nepal.

Observed specimens: Two adult females, 28°19’35.6”N & 84°54’29.9”E, Kerauja, Yaruphant (Manaslu), Nepal, 1,250m, 24.ii.2012, under stones in dry riverbed (Buri Gandaki), observed by Henning Rose and Alexander Rose, not collected. Two adult females, 27°56’14.1”N & 84°24’15.2”E, Bandipur, Nepal, 900m, 16.iv.2016, in webs at night at upper edge of roadside embankment, observed by Binu Shrestha and Tobias Dörr, not collected.

Historical record: L. mactans (mentioned in (Levi 1959): Nepal: 28024’N & 83023’E, Mayangdi Khola nr. Darban, 3,000ft , collected by K.H. Hyatt.

While conducting night-time searches (20.00–21.00 h) in Bandipur (roughly halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara) in April 2016, we encountered two large individuals of a Latrodectus sp. in their webs at the top of a roadside embankment (at a height of ~3m) close to Bandipur main street (Image 1A–C).  Based on coloration, these spiders were identified as Latrodectus elegans, a species which is widely distributed in southern and southeastern Asia (Japan, Myanmar, and India) (Yoshida 2009; Kananbala et al. 2012; World Spider Catalog 2020).  The dorsal coloration matches that described for L. elegans (Image 1A,D); however, the red ventral hourglass marking typical of many Latrodectus species, though present, was not clearly visible due to a somewhat subdued red coloration (Image 1B).  The distinctness of this hourglass shape appears to exhibit high inter-individual variation in other Latrodectus as well (Kaston 1970).

An exhaustive internet search revealed an additional photographic record from the Gorkha area, around 60km distance from Bandipur area.  Two females were found during a trekking expedition under stones in a dry river bed (Image 1D) (Henning & Alexander Rose pers. comm. May 2016).

The nearest confirmed record for L. elegans lies in Manipur, India (Kananbala et al. 2012), a distance of ~1,000km to the southeast, and its occurrence in Nepal, and thus represents a significant extension of the known range of this species.  Importantly, to the best of our knowledge, this is only the second record of the genus Latrodectus from Nepal and the first more recent one – a historical record of L. mactans is mentioned in (Levi 1959) without a date (but must stem prior to 1959, when the citing article was published), however, what was considered by Levi as “L. mactans” comprises a group that other authors have considered distinct species (while presently, L. mactans refers to a species with a North American center of distribution).  Importantly, the Nepali “L. mactans” was collected in west-central Nepal only ~100km from where we found L. elegans (Figure 1).  We consider it highly likely that this record actually refers to L. elegans, or an as yet undescribed Latrodectus species.

The occurrence of L. elegans in Nepal raises a number of interesting questions.  Firstly, Latrodectus spp. are medically significant spiders, and the degree to which the Nepali species cause envenomation is unknown.  Nepal is listed among countries in which “Latrodectism” (Black Widow spider envenomation) is endemic (Maretic 2013) (albeit without clear source attribution), suggesting that indeed Latrodectus might be of medical significance in Nepal.  Secondly, the apparently immense distribution area of L. elegans (from Japan, Burma, China, and India to Nepal) raises the question of origin.  Are the Nepali specimens autochthonous populations or were they established in Nepal by accidental human activity?  Latrodectus spp. are often found near human habitations and could have traveled to Nepal via, for example, firewood.  Future studies should be directed at phylogenetic comparisons of specimens collected in Nepal with those from the type locality in Myanmar.  If L. elegans turns out to be autochthonous, this likely means that the species is widely distributed within Nepal.  Alternatively, L. elegans might actually represent a morphologically extensively homogeneous species complex.  Unfortunately, a recent phylogenetic study of global Latrodectus distribution omitted L. elegans (Garb et al. 2004).  Future work is needed to address this issue.

 

For figure & image – click here

 

 

References

 

Garb, J.E., A. Gonzalez & R.G. Gillespie (2004). The black widow spider genus Latrodectus (Araneae: Theridiidae): phylogeny, biogeography, and invasion history. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31(3): 1127–1142.

Jelinek, G.A. (1997). Widow spider envenomation (latrodectism): a worldwide problem. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 8(4): 226–231.

Kananbala, A., K. Manoj, M. Bhubaneshwari, A. Binarani & M. Siliwal (2012). The first report of the widow spider Latrodectus elegans (Araneae: Theridiidae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(7): 2718–2722. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3152.2718-22

Kaston, B.J. (1970). Comparative Biology of the American black widow spiders. Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History 16: 33–82.

Levi, H.W. (1959). The Spider Genus Latrodectus (Araneae, Theridiidae). Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 78(1): 7–43.

Maretic, Z. (2013). Venoms of Theridiidae, Genus Latrodectus: Epidemiology of Envenomation, Symptomatology, Pathology and Treatment. Arthropod Venoms. S. Bettini. Berlin Heidelberg New York, Springer-Verlag, 869pp.

Ryan, N.M., N.A. Buckley & A. Graudins (2017). Treatments for Latrodectism-A Systematic Review on Their Clinical Effectiveness. Toxins  9(4): 149–212. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9040148   

Schmidt, G. & P. Klaas (1991). ”Eine neue Latrodectus-Spezies aus Sri Lanka (Araneida:Theridiidae).“ Arachnologischer Anzeiger 14: 6–9.

Srinivasulu, C., B. Srinivasulu, S.M.M. Javed, M. Seetharamaraju, S.A. Jyothi, C.A. Srinivasulu & F. Tampal (2013). Additions to the araneofauna of Andhra Pradesh, India-Part II. Records of interesting species of the comb-footed general Latrodectus, Rhomphaea and Coleosoma (Araneae: Theridiidae). Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(10): 4483–4491. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2660.4483-91

Thapa, V.K. (1995). Enumeration of the spiders of Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Nepal 43.

World Spider Catalog (2020). World Spider Catalog. Version 21.0. Natural History Museum Bern, online at https://wsc.nmbe.ch/genus/3502, accessed on 22 February 2020.

Yoshida, H. (2009). Uloboridae, Theridiidae, Ctenidae. The spiders of Japan with keys to the families and general and Illustrations of the species H. Ono. Kanagawa, Tokai University Press, 363–365pp.

 

 

 

Corrigenda

 

Daniel, J.A. & K. Ramaraju (2020). Collecting parasitic Aculeata (Hymenoptera) from rice ecosystems of Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12(8): 15828–15834. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4724.12.8.15828-15834

 

Page No. 15831 Image no. 9 written as “Zavatilla sp.” should be read as “Spilomutilla sp.”

 

“Zavatilla sp.” should be read as “Spilomutilla sp.” throughout the article.

 

Page No. 15833, Table 3, Rows 9 & 10, column 2 (host), written as “Coleoptera, Diptera, &     Hymenoptera” should be read as “Hymenoptera (Aculeata), rarely Diptera or even Coleoptera”

 

Page No. 15833, Table 3, Rows 9 & 10, column 3 written as “Lelej et al. 2007” should be read as “Lelej & Schmid-Egger 2005”.