Sicarius

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Classis: Arachnida
Ordo: Araneae
Subordo: Opisthothelae
Infraordo: Araneomorphae
Taxon: Neocribellatae
Series: Haplogynae
Superfamilia: Scytodoidea

Familia: Sicariidae
Genus: Sicarius (Walckenaer)
Species: S. albospinosus – S. crustosus – S. damarensis – S. deformis – S. dolichocephalus – S. fumosus – S. gracilis – S. hahni – S. lanuginosus – S. minoratus – S. nicoleti – S. patagonicus – S. peruensis – S. rubripes – S. rugosus – S. rupestris – S. spatulatus – S. terrosus – S. testaceus – S. tropicus – S. utriformis – S. vallenato
Name

Sicarius Walckenaer, 1847

Type species: Sicarius terrosus (Nicolet, 1849)
References

Magalhães, I.L.F.; Brescovit, A.D.; Santos, A.J. 2013: The six-eyed sand spiders of the genus Sicarius (Araneae: Haplogynae: Sicariidae) from the Brazilian Caatinga. Zootaxa 3599(2): 101–135. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3599.2.1 Reference page.

Links

Platnick, N. I. 2008. The World Spider Catalog, version 9.0. American Museum of Natural History. [1]

Sicarius is a genus of recluse spiders that is potentially medically significant to humans. It is one of three genera in its family, all venomous spiders known for a bite that can induce loxoscelism. They live in deserts and arid regions of the Neotropics, and females use a mixture of sand and silk when producing egg sacs. The name is Latin for assassin.
Description

Sicarius spiders can grow up to 1 to 2 inches (25 to 51 mm) long, and have six eyes arranged into three groups of two (known as "dyads"). Physically, they resemble crab spiders and members of the Homalonychus genus. They lack the characteristic violin-shaped marking of the more well-known members of its family, Sicariidae the recluse spiders.

They can live for a very long time without food or water. Some can live for up to fifteen years, making them among the longest-lived spiders, behind the trap-door spiders and tarantulas, many known to live for twenty to thirty years. The oldest recorded spider is Number 16, a trap-door spider killed by a parasitic wasp at forty-three years old.[1]
Venom components and effects

Like all recluse spiders, these produce a dermonecrotic venom that contains sphingomyelinase D, an enzyme in the sphingomyelin phosphodiesterase family. It is somewhat unique to them, otherwise only found in a few pathogenic bacteria. The venom causes bleeding and damage to many organs of the body, though only S. ornatus and a few others have been proven to be extremely toxic on the order of Hexophtalma hahni or several other African sand spiders.[2] It has also recently been proven that Sicarius thomisoides contains active sphingomyelinase D, very similar to that of Loxosceles laeta and Sicarius ornatus, and that its bite can cause serious damage in humans.[3]
Taxonomy

This genus was erected by Charles Athanase Walckenaer in 1847 with the single species, S. thomisoides.[4] In 2017, the number of species decreased after a phylogenetic study showed that the South African species formerly included here were actually distinct, instead belonging to the genus Hexophthalma.[2]

It is one of only three genera in its family, and is placed in the same subfamily as Hexophthalma:[2]
Sicariidae
Loxoscelinae

Loxosceles (recluse spiders)
Sicariinae

Hexophthalma

Sicarius
Species

As of March 2020 it contains twenty-one species, found in South America, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua:[5]

Sicarius andinus Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2017 – Peru
Sicarius boliviensis Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2017 – Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay
Sicarius cariri Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2013 – Brazil
Sicarius crustosus (Nicolet, 1849) – Chile
Sicarius diadorim Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2013 – Brazil
Sicarius fumosus (Nicolet, 1849) – Chile
Sicarius gracilis (Keyserling, 1880) – Ecuador, Peru
Sicarius jequitinhonha Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2017 – Brazil
Sicarius lanuginosus (Nicolet, 1849) – Chile
Sicarius levii Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2017 – Chile, Argentina
Sicarius mapuche Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2017 – Argentina
Sicarius ornatus Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2013 – Brazil
Sicarius peruensis (Keyserling, 1880) – Peru
Sicarius rugosus (F. O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1899) – El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica
Sicarius rupestris (Holmberg, 1881) – Argentina
Sicarius saci Magalhães, Brescovit & Santos, 2017 – Brazil
Sicarius thomisoides Walckenaer, 1847 (type) – Chile
Sicarius tropicus (Mello-Leitão, 1936) – Brazil
Sicarius utriformis (Butler, 1877) – Ecuador (Galapagos)
Sicarius vallenato Cala-Riquelme, Gutiérrez-Estrada, Flórez-Daza & Agnarsson, 2017 – Colombia
Sicarius yurensis Strand, 1908 – Peru, Chile

In synonymy:

S. deformis (Nicolet, 1849) = Sicarius fumosus (Nicolet, 1849)
S. irregularis (Mello-Leitão, 1940) = Sicarius rupestris (Holmberg, 1881)
S. minoratus (Nicolet, 1849) = Sicarius thomisoides Walckenaer, 1847
S. nicoleti (Keyserling, 1880) = Sicarius thomisoides Walckenaer, 1847
S. patagonicus Simon, 1919 = Sicarius rupestris (Holmberg, 1881)
S. rubripes (Nicolet, 1849) = Sicarius thomisoides Walckenaer, 1847
S. terrosus (Nicolet, 1849) = Sicarius thomisoides Walckenaer, 1847

Transferred to Hexophthalma

Sicarius albospinosus = Hexophthalma albospinosa (Purcell, 1908)
Sicarius damarensis = Hexophthalma damarensis (Lawrence, 1928)
Sicarius dolichocephalus = Hexophthalma dolichocephala (Lawrence, 1928)
Sicarius hahni = Hexophthalma hahni (Karsch, 1878) (also = Sicarius testaceus)
Sicarius spatulatus = Hexophthalma spatulata (Pocock, 1900)