We describe a 12-year-old boy in England with keratitis secondary to tarantula hairs embedded within the stroma of his cornea. Every attempt must be made to isolate these hairs at the first visit as they have a barbed nature and have a propensity to propagate through ocular tissues. A chronic keratitis requiring long-term steroid use may result if hairs persist in the cornea. Children who keep tarantulas as pets should be instructed on safe handling to prevent the tarantula from adopting defence mechanisms and shedding their hairs.
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Sci Total Environ
May 2024
Advanced Textile R&D Department, Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), Ansan 15588, Republic of Korea; HYU-KITECH Joint Department, Hanyang University, 222, Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:
Aquatic environments are being polluted by microplastics primarily originating from the washing of synthetic textiles. Microfibers (MF), which are microplastics in synthetic fibers, are consistently introduced into the environment with each domestic laundry cycle. To address this issue, we developed a specialized MF capture "barbed filter" (BF) by transforming PET monofilaments of different diameters (0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvolution
January 2024
Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
The extreme asymmetry of species richness distribution across the tree of life has always intrigued evolutionary biologists. Two competing explanations have been proposed to explain this pattern-the clade age hypothesis and diversification rate variation. While these two scenarios may not be mutually exclusive, to what extent time and diversification rates interact to explain species richness patterns remains understudied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn Acad Bras Cienc
August 2022
6365 Willowpark Way, Sooke, British Columbia, Canada.
The tarantula genus Tmesiphantes Simon, 1892 includes 20 valid species distributed in Argentina and Brazil. These spiders are distinguished from other Theraphosinae genera by the presence of an incrassate femur III, more evident in males, urticating hair types III and IV on the abdominal dorsum, few cuspules on the labium (0 to 30), maxillae with a maximum of 200 cuspules and sternum rounded. From recent examination of material from Peru, we discovered specimens that share all the morphological characters of Tmesiphantes, but did not fit with any known species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBr J Dermatol
March 2018
Department of Dermatology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther
September 2017
Program of Environmental Toxicology, School of Public Health, China Medical University, No. 77 Puhe Road, Shenbei New District, Shenyang, Liaoning, 110122, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:
Introduction: Tarantulas belonging to the Theraphosidae family are more and more popular as family pets. Ocular injuries caused by tarantulas are reported in several articles. We hereby report the first known case of ocular injury caused by a tarantula in China and observed by anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT).
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