Hábito alimentar de Loxosceles gaucho Gertsch, 1967 no campus do Instituto Butantan

Abstract

The genus Loxosceles has 143 species, distributed mainly in tropical and temperate regions. They are spiders with colors in shades of brown, hence their name brown spider. They have three pairs of eyes open in a semicircle, not exceeding 12mm, and not showing aggressive behavior. In Brazil there are 19 species, and only four of them are of medical importance. In the state of São Paulo, accidents are caused by Loxosceles gaucho, and these accidents occur when they are pressed and bite to defend themselves. As their diet is based on invertebrates, studies on the feeding of these spiders are scarce. In order to obtain more information on this topic, we carried out an active collection of Loxosceles gaucho and its webs, together with a survey of invertebrates, using pitfall traps. The animals were identified with the aid of a microscope. Both in the traps and in the webs, mainly hymenoptera were found, especially the Formicidae family, which possibly reflects their great abundance in the study area, being more frequently trapped in the webs.