Diversity of arachnids
Most spiders benefit us by destroying insects, but the black widow and the wolf spider are considered venomous. The black widow lives in the deserts and steppes of Central Asia; a young female has reddish spots on her abdomen, weaves a web under stones, and her bite can threaten a person’s life, and camels and horses also often die from it. The wolf spider (tarantula) is one of the largest spiders in our region (3–4 cm), lives in a vertical burrow and hunts at night. The solifuge (6–7 cm) is one of the largest arachnids in Uzbekistan, hunts insects and small reptiles at night and has no venom gland. The scorpion has a flat body, pedipalps turned into pincers, and a venom gland and sting at the end of the abdomen; it bears live young and hides under stones by day. Mites and ticks are small with an undivided body, and most are parasites: with a piercing-sucking proboscis they suck blood and spread diseases such as relapsing fever, tularemia and encephalitis. To avoid ticks, livestock areas are kept clean, clothes and body are checked after the pasture, and if a tick attaches an adult or a doctor should be called.
Table: wolf spider – black widow – solifuge – scorpion – tick: size, venom, way of life, danger to people. Safety: do not catch or touch them; if bitten or stung by a scorpion or black widow, call emergency medical help (103) or tell an adult at once – do not treat it yourself.