Canals Mauricio, Arriagada Nicolás, Solís Rigoberto
Programa de Salud Ambiental, Instituto de Salud Poblacional, Escuela de Salud Pública Salvador Allende G., Santiago, Chile. Departamento de Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. CP: 8380413 and Departamento de Zoología; Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile. Corresponding author, e-mail:
Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas Animales, Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, CP: 8820808 Chile.
J Med Entomol. 2015 Mar;52(2):109-16. doi: 10.1093/jme/tju021. Epub 2015 Feb 2.
In Chile, all necrotic arachnidism is attributed to the Chilean recluse spider, Loxosceles laeta Nicolet, a species that shares the microenvironmental habitats with the spitting spider Scytodes globula Nicolet. The latter species has been proposed as a potential predator of L. laeta. For this research, we studied the interaction between both species during individual encounters to assess the possibility of population regulation of L. laeta cohorts exposed to this potential predator. We found that in most encounters S. globula prevailed. Also, S. globula preys on spiderlings of L. laeta, with a population effect on cohorts of this species. These findings suggest that S. globula may be influencing L. laeta populations in central Chile. The population regulation of L. laeta by predation would be important because this species, in the absence of predators, has a high reproductive rate, and it can maintain populations of large size. However according to our results, although S. globula may aid in the reduction of both spiderling and adult L. laeta populations, and perhaps other Loxosceles species, it is insufficient for biological control of Loxosceles species. Its presence together with other control measures such as hygiene of the rooms can help to decrease loxoscelism incidence.
在智利，所有坏死性蛛毒中毒都被归因于智利隐蛛，即罗氏栉足蛛，该物种与唾沫蛛球腹蛛共享微环境栖息地。后者已被认为是罗氏栉足蛛的潜在捕食者。在本研究中，我们研究了两种蜘蛛在个体相遇时的相互作用，以评估暴露于这种潜在捕食者的罗氏栉足蛛种群数量调控的可能性。我们发现，在大多数相遇情况中，球腹蛛占上风。此外，球腹蛛会捕食罗氏栉足蛛的幼蛛，对该物种的种群有影响。这些发现表明，球腹蛛可能正在影响智利中部的罗氏栉足蛛种群数量。通过捕食对罗氏栉足蛛进行种群调控很重要，因为该物种在没有捕食者的情况下繁殖率很高，并且能够维持较大规模的种群。然而，根据我们的研究结果，尽管球腹蛛可能有助于减少罗氏栉足蛛幼蛛和成年个体的数量，或许还能减少其他栉足蛛物种的数量，但对于栉足蛛物种的生物防治来说还不够。它与其他控制措施（如房间卫生）共同存在有助于降低蛛毒中毒的发生率。
