Field Guide to Venomous and Medically Important Invertebrates ...

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SECTIONS Introduction The purpose of this guide is to present the reader with a basic yet sound understanding of the dangerous types of invertebrates that may be encountered during military operations worldwide. Brief descriptions of the physical and behavioral characteristics of these animals are presented. This field guide only considers those animals which pose a threat from direct contact and does not address toxic responses from food or contact allergies, or consumption of certain poisonous animals. In addition, a few invertebrates are included here not because they present a danger to people, but because they are often incorrectly presumed to be dangerous. A considerable amount of literature was reviewed, digested and consolidated to create this field guide. In an effort to make a concise guide with streamlined text to facilitate ease of reading under the operational conditions it was intended to serve, individual information sources have not been cited in the text. To the maximum extent possible the information extracted from these references has been paraphrased. Some suggested references for obtaining additional information on these animals are included at the end of this document. An attempt was made to use common language in this document to describe symptoms associated with arthropod attacks. However, for the sake of brevity in some situations, or where specific terms were essential to avoid confusion, we used medical and technical terminology. Those terms are defined in Appendix 1.
Threats from invertebrates encompass two broad categories: point source threats and psychological threats. Point source threats are those that can cause physical injury or death in a brief period of time. The sting of a wasp, and transmission of deadly disease agents are two examples of point source threats. Psychological threats, by comparison, are those that do not kill or directly threaten health, but rather present unpleasant situations for people to the extent that routine functioning is impaired. Both point source and psychological threats have the real potential to disrupt or even halt military operations, and they present serious concerns that commanders and the military medical community must address during both peacetime and contingencies. There are several types of potential negative interactions associated with invertebrates including physical pain, disease, envenomation, myiasis, allergic reactions, psychological disorders, and death. Physical pain- Bites, piercings, and stings caused by a wide variety of invertebrates can produce varying amounts of suffering among victims. Symptoms can range from mild annoyance to incapacitation. Although such physical trauma generally is not lethal, it may render a victim incapable of normal activity, and it can result in psychological disturbance among certain individuals. Disease- Transmission of arthropod- or vectorborne disease agents represents the most substantial and continuous non-combat threat to military members during deployments. The World Health Organization has estimated there are 10 million cases annually of vectorborne diseases worldwide with many being fatal. Historically, vectorborne diseases have produced far
Page 1 and 2: Field Guide to Venomous and Medical
Page 3 and 4: Introduction Types of negative inte
Page 5: Other Arthropods Centipedes Millipe
Page 9 and 10: ―traumatic‖ may be applied, and
Page 11 and 12: Surveillance of Medically Important
Page 13 and 14: Black widow spiders and their relat
Page 15 and 16: There are several commercially avai
Page 17 and 18: Approximately 12-24 hours following
Page 19 and 20: Reactions to envenomation by funnel
Page 21 and 22: Figure 21. Six-eyed sand spider (Si
Page 23 and 24: Yellow Sac spiders More than 200 sp
Page 25 and 26: one South American species, Lycosa
Page 27 and 28: Mesobuthus tamulus, the common red
Page 29 and 30: The effects of scorpion venom on pe
Page 31 and 32: motor skills become impaired. Other
Page 33 and 34: Larval chiggers actively crawl to t
Page 35 and 36: Scabies mites produce two general t
Page 37 and 38: Reactions from the bites of these v
Page 39 and 40: from pale yellow to reddish-brown.
Page 41 and 42: longer a tick remains attached, the
Page 43 and 44: Lice in the families Pediclulidae a
Page 45 and 46: Cockroaches Cockroaches are not med
Page 47 and 48: Although bites of kissing bugs norm
Page 49 and 50: the source of bed bugs. Under norma
Page 51 and 52: norepinephrine that affect the abil
Page 53 and 54: practical, scented sprays, perfumes
Page 55 and 56: Bumble bees and carpenter bees- Alt
Page 57 and 58:
are their bodies are commonly disti
Page 59 and 60:
Bullet ants are large (~1 inch or 2
Page 61 and 62:
which resolves within a few days. S
Page 63 and 64:
Certain species (brown-tail moth, t
Page 65 and 66:
Blister beetles (Family Meloidae)-
Page 67 and 68:
should consider the potential healt
Page 69 and 70:
feces or urine. The life cycle of b
Page 71 and 72:
Chrysomya bezziana (Calliphoridae),
Page 73 and 74:
Wohlfahrtia magnifica (family Sarco
Page 75 and 76:
mosquito eggs hatch into larvae wit
Page 77 and 78:
Aedes and Ochlerotatus mosquitoes a
Page 79 and 80:
of these genera play a secondary ro
Page 81 and 82:
and Phlebotomous in the Old World.
Page 83 and 84:
effective on the local scale. These
Page 85 and 86:
Filth flies (Families Muscidae, Cal
Page 87 and 88:
cosmopolitan distributions, can be
Page 89 and 90:
Northern rat flea, Nosopsyllus fasc
Page 91 and 92:
tetanus or gangrene. Minor surgery
Page 93 and 94:
Millipedes Millipedes (Class Diplop
Page 95 and 96:
distributed largely in marine syste
Page 97 and 98:
Figure 230. West coast sea nettle (
Page 99 and 100:
Carukia barnesi is a small box jell
Page 101 and 102:
Figure 235. The ―false box jellyf
Page 103 and 104:
The stings of some sea anemones can
Page 105 and 106:
fishermen, especially those in Denm
Page 107 and 108:
exploration of the wounds may be ne
Page 109 and 110:
and continues until the leech is en
Page 111 and 112:
Symptoms generally include pain, sw
Page 113 and 114:
Recovery may take from hours to wee
Page 115 and 116:
Swimmer’s itch (schistosome cerca
Page 117 and 118:
United States Centers for Disease C
Page 119 and 120:
L. hystrix: Southern Europe, Northe
Page 121 and 122:
Sicarius spp.: Zimbabwe, southern A
Page 123 and 124:
Family Scorpionidae Opistophthalmus
Page 125 and 126:
Ixodes holocyclus (Australian paral
Page 127 and 128:
Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, hor
Page 129 and 130:
Megalopyge opercularis (Puss caterp
Page 131 and 132:
Lucilia (=Phaenicia) cuprina (sheep
Page 133 and 134:
Glossina spp. (tse tse fly): Africa
Page 135 and 136:
Family Tedaniidae Tedania ignis (fi
Page 137 and 138:
Haementeria depressa: South America
Page 139 and 140:
Family Bulimidae Oncomelania spp.:
Page 141 and 142:
eschar- a sloughing or crusting whi
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