background: the best-known dangerous spiders belong to the six genera. the genus loxosceles or violin spiders are well known for their ability to cause skin necrosis or loxoscelism. all loxosceles species have medical im­portance due to their necrotizing venom. the present article reports the occurrence of l. rufescens in charkhab cave, south of iran (larestan). methods: the specimens were coll...

The subterranean environment of Christmas Island is diverse and includes freshwater, marine, anchialine, and terrestrial habitats. The cave fauna comprises swiftlets, and a diverse assemblage of invertebrates, both terrestrial and aquatic, which includes a number of rare and endemic species of high conservation significance. At least twelve species are probably restricted to subterranean habita...

Cave animals, compared to surface-dwelling relatives, tend to have reduced eyes and pigment, longer appendages, and enhanced mechanosensory structures. Pressing questions include how certain cave-related traits are gained and lost, and if they originate through the same or different genetic programs in independent lineages. An excellent system for exploring these questions is the isopod, Asellu...

In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions are stated for the Craig-Sakamoto equation det(I − sA − tB) = det(I − sA)det(I − tB) to hold for all scalars s, t ∈ C. Moreover, spectral properties for matrices A and B that satisfy this equation are investigated.

The causes of the late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions are still enigmatic. Although the fossil record can provide approximations for when a species went extinct, the timing of its disappearance alone cannot resolve the causes and mode of the decline preceding its extinction. However, ancient DNA analyses can reveal population size changes over time and narrow down potential causes of extinc...

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) existed in Europe and western Asia until the end of the last glaciation some 10,000 years ago. To investigate the genetic diversity, population history, and relationship among different cave bear populations, we have determined mitochondrial DNA sequences from 12 cave bears that range in age from about 26,500 to at least 49,000 years and originate from nine caves. Th...

Seasonality impacts species distributions through changes of the environmental conditions that affect the presence of individuals at a given place. Although the dynamics of cave microclimates are well known, only a few studies have evaluated the effects of such dynamics on non-strictly cave species. Here we assessed if species exploiting subterranean environments show changes in habitat occupat...

Regressive evolution of structures associated with vision in cave-dwelling organisms is the focus of intense research. Most work has focused on differences between extreme visual phenotypes: sighted, surface animals and their completely blind, cave-dwelling counterparts. We suggest that troglodytic systems, comprising multiple populations that vary along a gradient of visual function, may prove...

The efficacy of computer-aided vicarious exposure (CAVE) for the treatment of spider phobia in children was evaluated in a single blind, randomised, controlled trial. Twenty-eight participants, aged 10-17 years, received three 45-min sessions of either Live graded exposure (LGE), CAVE or were assigned to a Waitlist. Phobic symptomatology was measured at pre- and post-treatment, and at one month...

In this paper we provide a ® eld account of some aspects of the behavioural biology of Goniosoma longipes (Roewer), a harvestman which commonly occurs in caves in South-east Brazil. During daytime, solitary and aggregated individuals can be found resting on the cave walls. Just after sunset, however, many individuals leave the cave to forage for live and dead arthropods. Foraging individuals re...