Family: Sicariidae (violin spiders, six-eyed sand/crab
spiders)
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The family is both interesting and of medical significance.
It is represented
by two genera in South Africa, Loxosceles and
Sicarius. Loxosceles,
the violin spider, is the most common occurring through most of South Africa. This
spider, as well as the long-legged sac spider, Cheiracanthium,
is responsible for all the serious cytotoxic spider bites in South Africa. Sicarius,
the six-eyed sand/crab spider, is less commonly encountered as it occurs in the sand in
the more arid western half of southern Africa. Both are harmful to people with Loxosceles
bites resulting in ulcerating lesions while tissue damage from a bite
by Sicarius is far more extensive and severe, sometimes resulting in death.
Genera indigenous to southern Africa
Text and images by Norman Larsen
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