Tarantula Bite in Iran, a Letter to the Editor.

Dear Editor,

I read with great interest the case report titled “Periumbilical pain with radiation to both legs following tarantula bite; a case report” published in Emergency journal (1). The authors introduce a male patient presenting with periumbilical pain radiating to both legs. They performed paraclinical evaluations to rule out large vessel insult and herniated disk; however, he discharged himself against medical advice and was re-admitted after 24 hours with right leg swelling and erythema. This time, several bite-like sites were detected on his leg. The authors expected the patient's signs and symptoms to be due to the tarantula bites. It should be mentioned that to date, no study has reported the existence of tarantula species in Iran, where they are mistakenly named Rotails (in Persian) (Figure 1). Tarantulas are from the theraphosidae family. They are big and hairy and as the authors mentioned since they are not dangerous, they are even considered as pets (2). Tarantula spiders are not medically important except for some very limited species, which do not exist in Iran. Solifugae -or rotails as they are called in Iran- are in fact another group of animals also called camel spiders (Figure 2). They are also venom-free and generally cause secondary infections in the site of their bites. Thus, it seems that the patient's signs and symptoms cannot be due to the rotail or tarantula bites.

Figure 1

Tarantula; picture from Wikipedia

Figure 2

Solifugid or rotailas called in Iran; picture from Wikipedia