Journal of Animal Diversity

Journal of Animal Diversity

Medically significant spiders (Araneae), camel spiders (Solifugae), and centipedes (Chilopoda) of Iran: new distributional records and public health implications

Document Type : Review Article

Authors
Mehdi Khoobdel 1
Hassan Maddahi 2
Mahdi Hatami 3
1 Health Research Center, Lifestyle Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Arak University, Arak 38156-8-8349, Iran
3 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
10.22034/JAD.2025.7.1.5
Abstract
Several species of spiders, camel spiders and centipedes have medical significance due to their envenomation and causing painful wounds. These arthropods are responsible for various public health problems in different regions of Iran. Encountering these arthropods often causes fear, anxiety, and obsession among many people. The bites from certain species can be dangerous and include various clinical symptoms such as pain, burning, inflammation, nausea, injury, infection, muscle spasm, and rarely death. This paper seeks to investigate the medically important species of spiders, camel spiders and centipedes of Iran, their distribution, and the clinical symptoms associated with their bites. In this study, a literature review using reliable scientific databases was conducted and informative data were summarized and presented. Several spider species of the genera Latrodectus and Loxosceles (Araneae), most large galeodid and rhagodid species (Solifugae), and four Scolopendra species (Chilopoda) are listed as the most important species in terms of medical significance in Iran. New distributional records of camel spider species Galeodopsis bilkjeviczi (Birula), Paragaleodes nesterovi Birula, Rhagodorta zorab (Birula), and centipede species Scolopendra canidens Newport and Scolopendra mirabilis (Porat) are provided.
Keywords
Arachnophobia
clinical symptoms
latrodectism
venomous arthropods
venom composition

Subjects

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Journal of Animal Diversity
Volume 7, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
Cover photo: The Ottoman Viper Montivipera xanthina (Gray, 1849) (Ophidia: Viperidae), from Gönen, Balıkesir, Türkiye. Photo by Arda Emre Kandil, 02 April 2024.
Winter 2025
Pages 57-68