''Cheiracanthium punctorium'', one of several species commonly known as the yellow sac spider, is a spider found from central

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

. They reach a length of about 15 mm, and their bite can penetrate human skin; the bite has been compared to a wasp sting, perhaps a bit more severe, although susceptible persons can have stronger reactions, like

nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. While not painful, it can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of th ...

. Females build an egg sac of about 4 cm in high grass. It opens below and is aggressively defended. In

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, where it is the only "seriously" venomous spider, it is a rare species, only known to occur in notable numbers in the Kaiserstuhl region, the hottest part of the country. Due to changing weather patterns, leading to increased

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

ity and less

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

in some areas, this species spreads to more northern parts of Europe, e.g.

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squ ...

, Germany, where the present trend is towards a climate more similar to the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate gras ...

s where ''C. punctorium'' is most numerous. The genus ''Cheiracanthium'' was transferred from the

Clubionidae The sac spiders of the family Clubionidae have a very confusing taxonomic history. Once, this family was a large catch-all taxon for a disparate collection of spiders, similar only in that they had eight eyes arranged in two rows and conical anter ...

to the

Miturgidae Miturgidae is a family of araneomorph spiders that includes nearly 170 species in 29 genera worldwide. First described by Eugène Simon in 1886, it has been substantially revised, and includes the previous family Zoridae as a synonym, and exclude ...

,Platnick 2007 and then to the

Cheiracanthiidae ''Cheiracanthiidae'' is a family of araneomorph spiders first described by Vladimir Wagner in 1887. The synonym Eutichuridae was used for a long time, but Cheiracanthiidae has priority. The largest genus currently recognized as belonging to this ...

Footnotes

References

* (2007)
''The world spider catalog''
version 8.0. American Museum of Natural History.

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q472994 punctorium Spiders of Asia Spiders of Europe Spiders described in 1789