Morsy T A, Arafa M A, Younis T A, Mahmoud I A
Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
J Egypt Soc Parasitol. 1996 Aug;26(2):337-51.
In Egypt, the rove beetle; Paederus alfierii Koch, is an active predator of several insects pests attacking a wide variety of cultivated plants as maize, cotton, clover ... etc. On the other hand, members of genus Paederus contain pederin (potent toxin) which in contact with human skin causes a necrotizing lesion (dermatitis linearis) and with the eye causes conjunctivitis. After the sudden flood of the year 1994, this beetle attacked a factory and about forty factors suffered a form of contact dermatitis and conjunctivitis. The majority of such factors needed hospitalization. To fill the gap in the knowledge of medical importance on such a predator, the present investigation was aimed. The aqueous extract from twenty wild collected adults (0.0101 gm) was tested on different groups of albino mice. No cutaneous reaction was seen macroscopically. On the other hand, another group of mice (3/4) showed mild conjunctival congestion faded on the next day. However, these experimental findings do not indicate the innocence of this rove-beetle from being harmful to man. The discussion was given on the light of work done abroad.
在埃及，隐翅虫（Paederus alfierii Koch）是多种害虫的活跃捕食者，这些害虫会攻击多种栽培植物，如玉米、棉花、三叶草等。另一方面，隐翅虫属的成员含有斑蝥素（一种强效毒素），它与人类皮肤接触会导致坏死性病变（线状皮炎），与眼睛接触会导致结膜炎。1994年突发洪水后，这种甲虫侵袭了一家工厂，约40名工人患上了某种接触性皮炎和结膜炎。大多数此类患者需要住院治疗。为填补关于这种捕食者医学重要性认识上的空白，开展了本研究。对20只野外采集的成年隐翅虫（0.0101克）的水提取物在不同组的白化小鼠身上进行了测试。肉眼观察未发现皮肤反应。另一方面，另一组小鼠（3/4）出现了轻度结膜充血，第二天消退。然而，这些实验结果并不表明这种隐翅虫对人类无害。根据国外的研究工作进行了讨论。
