Stinging caterpillars from the genera Podalia , Leucanella and Lonomia in Misiones, Argentina: A preliminary comparative approach to understand their toxicity

Caterpillar Venom: A Health Hazard of the 21st Century

“…In Brazil from 2000 to 2018, the Ministry of Health reported 60,588 caterpillar envenomation cases, of which there were 33 mortalities, and an incidence rate of 3.2 envenomations per 100,000 inhabitants [16]. From the same family, Saturniidae, several cases of envenomation by Hylesia metabus and Leucanella memusae ( Figure 1A) were also reported as indicated in Table 1 [17,18].…”

“…For caterpillars, the presence of hyaluronidases has been reported in the venom of L. obliqua, P. semirufa, M. urens (Family Megalopygidae), L. memusae, and Podalia ca. fuscescens (Family Megalopygidae) [18,24,36,37]. For L. obliqua, the presence of hyaluronidases was proven by a zymogram experiment conducted by Gouveia et al (2005) [36].…”

“…Besides their presence in Lonomia species, proteins related to the haemostatic disturbance were also identified in other species from the same or different family. Quintana et al (2017) [18] investigated the protein content of L. obliqua, L. memusae and P. ca. fuscescens and compared it.…”

Solanum lycocarpum Saint Hilaire (Solanaceae) is Host Plant of Leucanella memusae (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae: Hemileucinae) in Brazilian Mountain Grasslands

“…Larvae of the subfamily Hemileucinae possess urticating bristles or hairs on the body that are capable of inducing dermatitis and hemorrhage (Lemaire & Minet 1999;Moraes et al 2017;Mayence et al 2018). Larvae of the genera Lonomia, Leucanella (Saturniidae: Hemileucinae), and Podalia (Megalopygidae) are considered to be of major medical importance in South America due to the severity of the irritation caused, and the possibility of death after accidental contact (Menezes et al 2013;Quintana et al 2017;Sano-Martins et al 2018). Injury by Leucanella or Podalia are not as severe as those caused by Lonomia, in which the poisoning often is characterized by systemic hemorrhage (Espindula et al 2009;Specht et al 2009;Spadacci-Morena et al 2016).…”

“…Injury by Leucanella or Podalia are not as severe as those caused by Lonomia, in which the poisoning often is characterized by systemic hemorrhage (Espindula et al 2009;Specht et al 2009;Spadacci-Morena et al 2016). However, recent studies have shown that dermal contact with the species Leucanella memusae (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae: Hemileucinae) can inhibit blood plasma coagulation (Quintana et al 2017).…”