Records of spiders (Araneae: Theridiidae and Araneidae) new for the Turkish Fauna

Türkeş, Tuncay; Mergen, Orhan

doi:10.1080/09397140.2005.10638140

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…L. geometricus has a long and well-documented history of establishing populations outside of its native Austral African range (Lotz 1994). For example, populations have been described in parts of the Middle East (Levy and Amitai 1983;Türkeş and Mergen 2005), Southeast Asia (Muslimin et al 2015;Shukla and Broome 2007), Japan (Ono 1995), Australia (Forster and Forster 1999), French Polynesia (Marie and Vetter 2015), South America (Almeida et al 2009;Simó et al 2013;Taucare-Ríos and Canals 2015), the southern continental United States (Garb et al 2004;Sadir and Marske 2021;Schraft et al 2021;Hawaii (Pinter 1980). All these regions have much warmer and drier climates than Ireland.…”

Section: Adaptive Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A history of accidental widow spider (genus Latrodectus ) introductions on the island of Ireland with a new irish record for Latrodectus hesperus (Chamberlin and Ivie, 1935), and additional records of Latrodectus geometricus (C.L. Koch, 1841).

Collier,

Dugon,

Nolan

et al. 2023

bae

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The widow spiders of the genus Latrodectus (Araneae: Theridiidae) have a well-documented global medical significance due to the potent venom many of them possess. This medical importance partially stems from the global range expansion the genus has undergone, facilitated in part by human trade. This expansion has had an impact on human health in countries where Latrodectus spiders establish populations. Ireland has a detailed report history of accidental widow spider introductions, spanning over 30 years, which assists in understanding the potential such species have for establishing. Here we present three additional cases: a second and third record of Latrodectus geometricus (C.L. Koch, 1841) and the first record of Latrodectus hesperus (Chamberlin and Ivie, 1935). We also review all published reports of Latrodectus introductions in Ireland and discuss the potential for populations to establish. While case histories suggest that L. hesperus and L. geometricus can survive Irish winters, it is not certain that they can complete an egg-to-egg life cycle or even reproduce. Nevertheless, it seems possible they could do so in favourable micro-habitats in anthropogenic habitats such as hot houses. Identification of instances of Latrodectus introductions into Ireland is essential to prevent potential establishments that could lead to envenoming cases.

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