Dear Toxicologists, Biochemists and Medical Entomologists
I am a medical entomologist worked in NIH of Japan. In this November, many red-back
widow spiders were collected in Osaka area, which is located ca. 600 Km west from Tokyo.
At moment two thousands or more spiders were collected in this area. This means that
these spiders have already settled in Japan, although no spiders were collected in other
places includig Tokyo and Yokohama etc. at the moment. Japanese taxonomists in spiders
have different opinions about the identification of red-back widow spiders. So, we call them a
Latrodectus sp., which may be L. mactans hasselti or other species.
We have a plan to show whether the spiders collected in Japan have the same venom
comparing with those of European, Australian and American species. So I would like to get
a small amount of antibodies against the latrotoxin of L. mactans hasselti or close related
species of spiders. If you have monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies produced by mice, which
are specific to latrotoxin, it is very happy for us because we have already a labeled 2nd
antibodies to mouse Ig G or Ig M. I am eagerly looking forward to get your kind responses.
All my best wishes,
Dr. Mutsuo Kobayashi
Chief, Lab. of Physiology and
Biochemistry
Dept. of Medical Entomology
National Institute of Health
Toyama 1-23-1, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo, 162 Japan
E-mail:mutsuo at nih.go.jp
Fax: 81-3-5285-1147
