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Agelenopsis
aperta
Western Grass Spider
Family Agelenidae
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| Agelenopsis aperta (Western Grass Spider) is a typical funnel
web spider which is common in many of the deserts and coastal regions of southwestern
United States. These spiders typically live in a tubular, silk-lined retreat which may be
hidden in a clump of grass or may extend down into an abandoned rodent burrow, under
debris or crevices in rocks. This tube expands into a large sheet which extends over
surrounding vegetation. The venom of this spider was introduced by Spider Pharm in the early 80's and rapidly
became one of our best selling items. The venom is complex, with a large variety of
peptide and non-peptide toxins with diverse pharmacological activities. These have been
the subject of numerous pharmaceutical patents as well as a source for numerous useful
probes for neurological research, due to the unique selectivities of some of these toxins.
Some Characterized Toxins
- mu-Agatoxins: These are relatively small cysteine-rich protein toxins
which appear to act as sodium channel agonists, similar to better studied agonists from
other spiders (e.g. Phoneutria) and scorpions.
- omega-Agatoxins: These include a variety of calcium channel antagonists
which differ in their selectivities across phyla and for different types of calcium
channels. At least one of these, omega-Aga IVA, has been available commercially through
other sources.
- FTX: This is a small polyamine toxin, discovered by Llinas, which
blocks p-type calcium channel antagonists
- acylpolyamines (arylpolyamines): The venom includes a variety of
polyamine-based toxins which block excitatory amino acid receptors in mammalian brain and
at insect neuromuscular junctions. Although they tend to be rather non-specific at higher
doses, some selectivity for specific types of glutamate receptors has been found.
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Available
Agelenopsis aperta (Agelenidae) venom
Agelenopsis aperta venom glands |
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