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Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects

Caterpillars of the Neotropical genus Lonomia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) are responsible for some fatal envenomation of humans in South America inducing hemostatic disturbances in patients upon skin contact with the caterpillars’ spines. Currently, only two species have been reported to cause hemorr...

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Autores principales: González, Camila, Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana, Díaz-Díaz, Juana, Toro-Vargas, Diana M., Amarillo-Suarez, Angela R., Gey, Delphine, León, Cielo, Tovar, Eduardo, Arias, Mónica, Rivera, Nazario, Buitrago, Luz Stella, Pinto-Moraes, Roberto H., Sano Martins, Ida S., Decaëns, Thibaud, González, Mailyn A., Kitching, Ian J., Rougerie, Rodolphe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9949635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36821543
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011063
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author González, Camila
Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana
Díaz-Díaz, Juana
Toro-Vargas, Diana M.
Amarillo-Suarez, Angela R.
Gey, Delphine
León, Cielo
Tovar, Eduardo
Arias, Mónica
Rivera, Nazario
Buitrago, Luz Stella
Pinto-Moraes, Roberto H.
Sano Martins, Ida S.
Decaëns, Thibaud
González, Mailyn A.
Kitching, Ian J.
Rougerie, Rodolphe
author_facet González, Camila
Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana
Díaz-Díaz, Juana
Toro-Vargas, Diana M.
Amarillo-Suarez, Angela R.
Gey, Delphine
León, Cielo
Tovar, Eduardo
Arias, Mónica
Rivera, Nazario
Buitrago, Luz Stella
Pinto-Moraes, Roberto H.
Sano Martins, Ida S.
Decaëns, Thibaud
González, Mailyn A.
Kitching, Ian J.
Rougerie, Rodolphe
author_sort González, Camila
collection PubMed
description Caterpillars of the Neotropical genus Lonomia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) are responsible for some fatal envenomation of humans in South America inducing hemostatic disturbances in patients upon skin contact with the caterpillars’ spines. Currently, only two species have been reported to cause hemorrhagic syndromes in humans: Lonomia achelous and Lonomia obliqua. However, species identifications have remained largely unchallenged despite improved knowledge of venom diversity and growing evidence that the taxonomy used over past decades misrepresents and underestimates species diversity. Here, we revisit the taxonomic diversity and distribution of Lonomia species using the most extensive dataset assembled to date, combining DNA barcodes, morphological comparisons, and geographical information. Considering new evidence for seven undescribed species as well as three newly proposed nomenclatural changes, our integrative approach leads to the recognition of 60 species, of which seven are known or strongly suspected to cause severe envenomation in humans. From a newly compiled synthesis of epidemiological data, we also examine the consequences of our results for understanding Lonomia envenomation risks and call for further investigations of other species’ venom activities. This is required and necessary to improve alertness in areas at risk, and to define adequate treatment strategies for envenomed patients, including performing species identification and assessing the efficacy of anti-Lonomia serums against a broader diversity of species.
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spelling pubmed-99496352023-02-24 Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects González, Camila Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana Díaz-Díaz, Juana Toro-Vargas, Diana M. Amarillo-Suarez, Angela R. Gey, Delphine León, Cielo Tovar, Eduardo Arias, Mónica Rivera, Nazario Buitrago, Luz Stella Pinto-Moraes, Roberto H. Sano Martins, Ida S. Decaëns, Thibaud González, Mailyn A. Kitching, Ian J. Rougerie, Rodolphe PLoS Negl Trop Dis Research Article Caterpillars of the Neotropical genus Lonomia (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) are responsible for some fatal envenomation of humans in South America inducing hemostatic disturbances in patients upon skin contact with the caterpillars’ spines. Currently, only two species have been reported to cause hemorrhagic syndromes in humans: Lonomia achelous and Lonomia obliqua. However, species identifications have remained largely unchallenged despite improved knowledge of venom diversity and growing evidence that the taxonomy used over past decades misrepresents and underestimates species diversity. Here, we revisit the taxonomic diversity and distribution of Lonomia species using the most extensive dataset assembled to date, combining DNA barcodes, morphological comparisons, and geographical information. Considering new evidence for seven undescribed species as well as three newly proposed nomenclatural changes, our integrative approach leads to the recognition of 60 species, of which seven are known or strongly suspected to cause severe envenomation in humans. From a newly compiled synthesis of epidemiological data, we also examine the consequences of our results for understanding Lonomia envenomation risks and call for further investigations of other species’ venom activities. This is required and necessary to improve alertness in areas at risk, and to define adequate treatment strategies for envenomed patients, including performing species identification and assessing the efficacy of anti-Lonomia serums against a broader diversity of species. Public Library of Science 2023-02-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9949635/ /pubmed/36821543 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011063 Text en © 2023 González et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
González, Camila
Ballesteros-Mejia, Liliana
Díaz-Díaz, Juana
Toro-Vargas, Diana M.
Amarillo-Suarez, Angela R.
Gey, Delphine
León, Cielo
Tovar, Eduardo
Arias, Mónica
Rivera, Nazario
Buitrago, Luz Stella
Pinto-Moraes, Roberto H.
Sano Martins, Ida S.
Decaëns, Thibaud
González, Mailyn A.
Kitching, Ian J.
Rougerie, Rodolphe
Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
title Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
title_full Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
title_fullStr Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
title_full_unstemmed Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
title_short Deadly and venomous Lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
title_sort deadly and venomous lonomia caterpillars are more than the two usual suspects
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9949635/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36821543
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011063
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