Sicarius is a genus of recluse spiders that is potentially medically significant to humans. It is one of three genera in its family, all venomous spiders known for a bite that can induce loxoscelism. They live in deserts and arid regions of the Neotropics, and females use a mixture of sand and silk when producing egg sacs. The name is Latin for assassin.
Description
Sicarius spiders can grow up to 1 to 2 inches (25 to 51 mm) long, and have six eyes arranged into three groups of two (known as "dyads"). Physically, they resemble crab spiders and members of the Homalonychus genus. They lack the characteristic violin-shaped marking of the more well-known members of its family, Sicariidae the recluse spiders.
They can live for a very long time without food or water. Some can live for up to fifteen years, making them among the longest-lived spiders, behind the trap-door spiders and tarantulas, many known to live for twenty to thirty years. The oldest recorded spider is Number 16, a trap-door spider killed by a parasitic wasp at forty-three years old.[1]
^Walckenaer, C. A. (1847), "Dernier Supplément", in Walckenaer, C. A. (ed.), Histoire naturelles des Insects
^Gloor, Daniel; Nentwig, Wolfgang; Blick, Theo; Kropf, Christian (2020). "Gen. Sicarius Walckenaer, 1847". World Spider Catalog Version 20.0. Natural History Museum Bern. doi:10.24436/2. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
