Blister beetle dermatitis is a cutaneous condition that occurs after contact with any of several types of beetle

Beetle

Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

s, including those from the Meloidae and Oedemeridae

Oedemeridae

The family Oedemeridae is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as false blister beetles, though some recent authors have coined the name pollen-feeding beetles...

 families. Blister beetle

Blister beetle

Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. There are approximately 7,500 known species worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some aposematically colored, announcing their toxicity to would-be...

s secrete an irritant called cantharidin

Cantharidin

Cantharidin, a type of terpenoid, is a poisonous chemical compound secreted by many species of blister beetle, and most notably by the Spanish fly, Lytta vesicatoria. The false blister beetles and cardinal beetles also have cantharidin.-History:...

, a vesicant that can get onto humans if they touch the beetles.

The term "blister beetle dermatitis" is also occasionally used as a synonym for Paederus dermatitis

Paederus dermatitis

Paederus dermatitis is skin irritation resulting from contact with the hemolymph of certain rove beetles, a group that includes the genus Paederus...

, a somewhat different dermatitis caused by contact with pederin

Pederin

Pederin is a vesicant toxic amide with two tetrahydropyran rings, found in the haemolymph of the Paederus genus of beetles, including the Nairobi fly, belonging to the Staphylinidae family. It was first characterized by processing 25 million field-collected P. fuscipes. It makes up approximately...

, an irritant in the hemolymph of a different group of beetles, the rove beetles.

Symptoms

After skin comes in contact with cantharidin, local irritation begins within a few hours. (This is in contrast to Paederus dermatitis, where symptoms first appear 12–36 hours after contact with rove beetles.) Painful blisters appear, but scarring from these epidermal lesions is rare.

External links

Research paper describing both blister beetle dermatitis and Paederus dermatitis, with photos of both