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

Binu Shrestha & Tobias Dörr

26 July 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 10 | Pages: 16385–16388 DOI: 10.11609/jot.5796.12.10.16385-16388

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Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2020 | 12(10): 16385–16388 ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) PLATINUM OPEN ACCESS DOI: htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5796.12.10.16385-16388

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

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

Binu Shrestha 1 & Tobias Dörr 2

1,2 1037 Hanshaw Road, Ithaca NY, 14850, USA. 1 21 Ghumt Kumari Marg, Purano Bhaneswor, 44600 Kathmandu, Nepal. 1 [email protected], 2 [email protected] (corresponding author)

The black widow of the genus Latrodectus elegans, ranges from India, Burma and China to Japan Walckenaer, 1805 (32 species) have a nearly worldwide (Yoshida 2009). This species has only been recorded distributon and are among the medically most signifcant from southern Asia (India) relatvely recently (Kananbala spiders, with the bites of some species (partcularly L. et al. 2012), perhaps refectng historical undersurveying mactans (Fabricius, 1775), L. hasselt Thorell, 1870 and of in this region. This is partcularly true for L. tredecimgutatus (Rossi, 1790)) causing signifcant Nepal, with the most recent summary publicaton listng morbidity and mortality in their distributon range only 175 species of spiders (Thapa 1995), undoubtedly (Jelinek 1997; Garb et al. 2004; Ryan et al. 2017). This an underestmate. Contributons to the diversity of the exceptonally successful genus has setled on almost all Nepali spider fauna thus fll an important knowledge contnents (except Antarctca) and some species now gap in biodiversity estmates. Nepal shares borders with (likely due to anthropogenic disseminaton) have an both India (in the south, east and west) and China (in almost cosmopolitan distributon (e.g., L. geometricus the north) and is a biodiversity hotspot due to its variety C.L. Koch, 1848) (Gonzalez et al. 2004). While the majority of alttudes that create a diversity of microclimate and of species are found in Africa/Middle East (~13 species) vegetaton zones across the country. During a trip to and North/South Americas (11 species) (World Spider Nepal in April 2016, we observed several apparent Catalog 2020), southern and southeastern Asia exhibit members of the genus Latrodectus, one of which was a relatvely low Latrodectus species diversity (three clearly identfable as L. elegans. These observatons species). Among the Asian species, L. erythromelas are described herein and contextualized with a previous Schmidt & Klaas, 1991 has an uncharacteristcally (historical) record for the genus in Nepal. narrow distributon range (Sri Lanka and southern India: Observed specimens: Two adult females, Schmidt & Klaas 1991; Srinivasulu et al. 2013), while L. 28°19’35.6”N & 84°54’29.9”E, Kerauja, Yaruphant hasselt appears in southern Asia at the western edge (Manaslu), Nepal, 1,250m, 24.ii.2012, under stones in of its vast distributon area (Srinivasulu et al. 2013), dry riverbed (Buri Gandaki), observed by Henning Rose which also includes Australia and New Zealand (Garb et and Alexander Rose, not collected. Two adult females, al. 2004). The third species natve to southern Asia, L 27°56’14.1”N & 84°24’15.2”E, Bandipur, Nepal, 900m,

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

Citaton: 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. htps://doi.org/10.11609/jot.5796.12.10.16385-16388

Copyright: © Shrestha & Dorr 2020. Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of this artcle in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

Funding: None.

Competng interests: The authors declare no competng interests.

Acknowledgements: We thank Alexander and Henning Rose for readily communicatng locaton informaton and providing pictures of Latrodectus elegans from Manaslu. We further thank Dr. Bhola Meher Shrestha for feld trips in Nepal and for help with Nepali translaton.

16385 J TT First records of the black widow spider from Nepal Shrestha & Dorr

Figure 1. Known records of Latrodectus in Nepal. Lm, L. mactans sensu Levi 1959, Le, L. elegans. The map was created through modifcaton of a template obtained from Naapi Bibhag (www.dos.gov.np).

16.iv.2016, in webs at night at upper edge of roadside 60km distance from Bandipur area. Two females were embankment, observed by Binu Shrestha and Tobias found during a trekking expediton under stones in a dry Dörr, not collected. river bed (Image 1D) (Henning & Alexander Rose pers. Historical record: L. mactans (mentoned in (Levi comm. May 2016). 1959): Nepal: 28024’N & 83023’E, Mayangdi Khola nr. The nearest confrmed record for L. elegans lies in Darban, 3,000f , collected by K.H. Hyat. Manipur, India (Kananbala et al. 2012), a distance of While conductng night-tme searches (20.00–21.00 ~1,000km to the southeast, and its occurrence in Nepal, h) in Bandipur (roughly halfway between Kathmandu and thus represents a signifcant extension of the known and Pokhara) in April 2016, we encountered two large range of this species. Importantly, to the best of our individuals of a Latrodectus sp. in their webs at the knowledge, this is only the second record of the genus top of a roadside embankment (at a height of ~3m) Latrodectus from Nepal and the frst more recent one close to Bandipur main street (Image 1A–C). Based on – a historical record of L. mactans is mentoned in (Levi coloraton, these spiders were identfed as Latrodectus 1959) without a date (but must stem prior to 1959, when elegans, a species which is widely distributed in southern the citng artcle was published), however, what was and southeastern Asia (Japan, Myanmar, and India) considered by Levi as “L. mactans” comprises a group (Yoshida 2009; Kananbala et al. 2012; World Spider that other authors have considered distnct species Catalog 2020). The dorsal coloraton matches that (while presently, L. mactans refers to a species with a described for L. elegans (Image 1A,D); however, the red North American center of distributon). Importantly, the ventral hourglass marking typical of many Latrodectus Nepali “L. mactans” was collected in west-central Nepal species, though present, was not clearly visible due to only ~100km from where we found L. elegans (Figure a somewhat subdued red coloraton (Image 1B). The 1). We consider it highly likely that this record actually distnctness of this hourglass shape appears to exhibit refers to L. elegans, or an as yet undescribed Latrodectus high inter-individual variaton in other Latrodectus as species. well (Kaston 1970). The occurrence of L. elegans in Nepal raises a number An exhaustve internet search revealed an additonal of interestng questons. Firstly, Latrodectus spp. are photographic record from the Gorkha area, around medically signifcant spiders, and the degree to which

16386 Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2020 | 12(10): 16385–16388 J TT First records of the black widow spider from Nepal Shrestha & Dorr

A © Tobias Dörr B © Tobias Dörr

C D © Tobias Dörr © Henning and Alexander Rose Image 1. Latrodectus elegans from two localites in Nepal: A—dorsal view of adult female from Bandipur | B—ventral view of same individual | C—adult female in situ in its web in Bandipur | D—adult female from Manaslu. © 1A–C—Tobias Dörr; 1D—Henning and Alexander Rose. the Nepali species cause envenomaton is unknown. habitatons and could have traveled to Nepal via, for Nepal is listed among countries in which “Latrodectsm” example, frewood. Future studies should be directed (Black Widow spider envenomaton) is endemic at phylogenetc comparisons of specimens collected in (Maretc 2013) (albeit without clear source atributon), Nepal with those from the type locality in Myanmar. suggestng that indeed Latrodectus might be of medical If L. elegans turns out to be autochthonous, this likely signifcance in Nepal. Secondly, the apparently immense means that the species is widely distributed within distributon area of L. elegans (from Japan, Burma, Nepal. Alternatvely, L. elegans might actually represent China, and India to Nepal) raises the queston of origin. a morphologically extensively homogeneous species Are the Nepali specimens autochthonous populatons complex. Unfortunately, a recent phylogenetc study of or were they established in Nepal by accidental human global Latrodectus distributon omited L. elegans (Garb actvity? Latrodectus spp. are ofen found near human et al. 2004). Future work is needed to address this issue.

Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2020 | 12(10): 16385–16388 16387 J TT First records of the black widow spider from Nepal Shrestha & Dorr

References Ryan, N.M., N.A. Buckley & A. Graudins (2017). Treatments for Latrodectsm-A Systematc Review on Their Clinical Efectveness. Garb, J.E., A. Gonzalez & R.G. Gillespie (2004). The black widow spider Toxins 9(4): 149–212. htps://doi.org/10.3390/toxins9040148 genus Latrodectus (Araneae: Theridiidae): phylogeny, biogeography, Schmidt, G. & P. Klaas (1991). „Eine neue Latrodectus-Spezies aus Sri and invasion history. Molecular Phylogenetcs and Evoluton 31(3): Lanka (Araneida:Theridiidae).“ Arachnologischer Anzeiger 14: 6–9. 1127–1142. Srinivasulu, C., B. Srinivasulu, S.M.M. Javed, M. Seetharamaraju, Jelinek, G.A. (1997). Widow spider envenomaton (latrodectsm): a S.A. Jyothi, C.A. Srinivasulu & F. Tampal (2013). Additons to the worldwide problem. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 8(4): araneofauna of Andhra Pradesh, India-Part II. Records of interestng 226–231. species of the comb-footed general Latrodectus, Rhomphaea and Kananbala, A., K. Manoj, M. Bhubaneshwari, A. Binarani & M. Siliwal Coleosoma (Araneae: Theridiidae). Journal of Threatened Taxa (2012). The frst report of the widow spider Latrodectus elegans 5(10): 4483–4491. htps://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2660.4483-91 (Araneae: Theridiidae) from India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 4(7): Thapa, V.K. (1995). Enumeraton of the spiders of Nepal. Kathmandu, 2718–2722. htps://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3152.2718-22 Nepal, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservaton, Department of Kaston, B.J. (1970). Comparatve Biology of the American black widow Natonal Parks and Wildlife Conservaton Nepal 43. spiders. Transactons of the San Diego Society of Natural History 16: World Spider Catalog (2020). World Spider Catalog. Version 21.0. 33–82. Natural History Museum Bern, online at htps://wsc.nmbe.ch/ Levi, H.W. (1959). The Spider Genus Latrodectus (Araneae, Theridiidae). genus/3502, accessed on 22 February 2020. Transactons of the American Microscopical Society 78(1): 7–43. Yoshida, H. (2009). Uloboridae, Theridiidae, Ctenidae. The spiders of Maretc, Z. (2013). Venoms of Theridiidae, Genus Latrodectus: Japan with keys to the families and general and Illustratons of the Epidemiology of Envenomaton, Symptomatology, Pathology and species H. Ono. Kanagawa, Tokai University Press, 363–365pp. Treatment. Venoms. S. Betni. Berlin Heidelberg New York, Springer-Verlag, 869pp.

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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

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

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

(iii) 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”

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

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

PLATINUM The Journal of Threatened Taxa (JoTT) is dedicated to building evidence for conservaton globally by publishing peer-reviewed artcles online every month at a reasonably rapid rate at www.threatenedtaxa.org. OPEN ACCESS All artcles published in JoTT are registered under Creatve Commons Atributon 4.0 Internatonal License unless otherwise mentoned. JoTT allows allows unrestricted use, reproducton, and distributon of artcles in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publicaton.

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

July 2020 | Vol. 12 | No. 10 | Pages: 16195–16406 Date of Publicaton: 26 July 2020 (Online & Print) www.threatenedtaxa.org DOI: 10.11609/jot.2020.12.10.16195-16406

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Pakshirajan Lakshminarasimhan: a plant taxonomist who loved plants and people alike A threat assessment of Three-striped Palm Squirrel Funambulus palmarum (Mammalia: – Mandar N. Datar, Pp. 16195–16203 Rodenta: Sciuridae) from roadkills in Sigur Plateau, Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India – Arockianathan Samson, Balasundaram Ramakrishnan & Jabamalainathan Leonaprincy, Communicatons Pp. 16347–16351

The worrisome conservaton status of ecosystems within the distributon range of the Impact of vehicular trafc on birds in Tiruchirappalli District, Tamil Nadu, India Spectacled Bear Tremarctos ornatus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Ursidae) in Ecuador – T. Siva & P. Neelanarayanan, Pp. 16352–16356 – José Guerrero-Casado & Ramón H. Zambrano, Pp. 16204–16209 Ichthyofaunal diversity of Manjeera Reservoir, Manjeera Wildlife Sanctuary, Telangana, Living with Leopard Panthera pardus fusca (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae): livestock India depredaton and community percepton in Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, – Kante Krishna Prasad, Mohammad Younus & Chelmala Srinivasulu, Pp. 16357–16367 southern Western Ghats – Bawa Mothilal Krishnakumar, Rajarathinavelu Nagarajan & Kanagaraj Muthamizh Selvan, New distributon record of the endemic and critcally endangered Giant Staghorn Fern Pp. 16210–16218 Platycerium grande (Fee) Kunze (Polypodiaceae) in central Mindanao – Cherie Cano-Mangaoang & Charissa Joy Arroyo Gumban, Pp. 16368–16372 An updated checklist of mammals of Odisha, India – Subrat Debata & Himanshu Shekhar Palei, Pp. 16219–16229 Notes Negatve human-wildlife interactons in traditonal agroforestry systems in Assam, India – Yashmita-Ulman, Manoj Singh, Awadhesh Kumar & Madhubala Sharma, Pp. 16230–16238 First photographic record of the Dhole Cuon alpinus (Mammalia: Carnivora: Canidae) from the Sirumalai Hills in Tamil Nadu, India Prevalence and morphotype diversity of Trichuris species and other soil-transmited – B.M. Krishnakumar & M. Eric Ramanujam, Pp. 16373–16376 helminths in captve non-human primates in northern Nigeria – Joshua Kamani, James P. Yidawi, Aliyu Sada, Emmanuel G. Msheliza & Usman A. Turaki, Tracing heavy metals in urban ecosystems through the study of bat guano Pp. 16239–16244 - a preliminary study from Kerala, India – Jithin Johnson & Moncey Vincent, Pp. 16377–16379 Detecton of hemoparasites in bats, Bangladesh – Shariful Islam, Rakib Uddin Ahmed, Md. Kaisar Rahman, Jinnat Ferdous, Md. Helal Uddin, Populaton dynamics and management strategies for the invasive African Catish Sazeda Akter, Abdullah Al Faruq, Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan, Ausraful Islam & Ariful Clarias gariepinus (Burchell, 1822) in the Western Ghats hotspot Islam, Pp. 16245–16250 – Kutanelloor Roshni, Chelapurath Radhakrishnan Renjithkumar, Rajeev Raghavan, Neelesh Dahanukar & Kuty Ranjeet, Pp. 16380–16384 Ecology of the Critcally Endangered Singidia Tilapia (Teleostei: Cichlidae: Oreochromis esculentus) of lake Kayanja, Uganda and its conservaton implicatons First records of the black widow spider Latrodectus elegans Thorell, 1898 (Araneae: – Richard Olwa, Herbert Nakiyende, Elias Muhumuza, Samuel Bassa, Anthony Taabu- Theridiidae) from Nepal Munyaho & Winnie Nkalubo, Pp. 16251–16256 – Binu Shrestha & Tobias Dörr, Pp. 16385–16388

Length-weight relatonships of two conservaton-concern mahseers (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: First report of the assassin bug Epidaus wangi (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Tor) of the river Cauvery, Karnataka, India Harpactorinae) from India – Adrian C. Pinder, Rajeev Raghavan, Shannon D. Bower & J. Robert Briton, Pp. 16257– – Swapnil S. Boyane & Hemant V. Ghate, Pp. 16389–16391 16261 Observatons of the damselfy Platylestes cf. platystylus Rambur, 1842 (Insecta: The identty and distributon of Bhavania annandalei Hora, 1920 (Cypriniformes: Odonata: Zygoptera: Lestdae) from peninsular India Balitoridae), a hillstream loach endemic to the Western Ghats of India – K.J. Rison & A. Vivek Chandran, Pp. 16392–16395 – Remya L. Sundar, V.K. Anoop, Arya Sidharthan, Neelesh Dahanukar & Rajeev Raghavan, Pp. 16262–16271 Herminium longilobatum (Orchidaceae), a new record for Bhutan – Ugyen Dechen, Tandin Wangchuk & Lam Norbu, Pp. 16396–16398 Records of two toads Dutaphrynus scaber and D. stomatcus (Amphibia: Anura: Bufonidae) from southeastern India Recent record of a threatened holoparasitc plant Sapria himalayana Grif. in – S.R. Ganesh, M. Rameshwaran, Naveen A. Joseph, Ahamed M. Jerith & Sushil K. Duta, Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, India Pp. 16272–16278 – Arif Ahmad, Amit Kumar, Gopal Singh Rawat & G.V. Gopi , Pp. 16399–16401

Some rare damselfies and dragonfies (Odonata: Zygoptera and Anisoptera) in Ukraine: Eleven new records of lichens to the state of Kerala, India new records, notes on distributon, and habitat preferences – Sonia Anna Zachariah, Sanjeeva Nayaka, Siljo Joseph, Pooja Gupta & Scaria – Alexander V. Martynov, Pp. 16279–16294 Kadookunnel Varghese, Pp. 16402–16406

Floristc diversity of Anjaneri Hills, Maharashtra, India – Sanjay Gajanan Aut, Sharad Suresh Kambale, Kumar Vinod Chhotupuri Gosavi & Arun Nivrut Chandore, Pp. 16295–16313

A checklist of macrofungi (mushroom) diversity and distributon in the forests of Tripura, India Publisher & Host — Sanjit Debnath, Ramesh Chandra Upadhyay, Rahul Saha, Koushik Majumdar, Panna Das & Ajay Krishna Saha, Pp. 16314–16346

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