A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala

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  A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala Abstract  A new species of the spider genus Euagrus Ausserer, 1875 from temperate pine-oak forests in the states of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo, Mexico is described: E. pulque sp. nov. The description of the new species is based on male and female adult specimens. Additionally, Euagrus gus Coyle, 1988 is recorded for the very first time in the state of Tlaxcala. These species have sympatric distributions in La Malinche National Park, Tlaxcala. With this description, the diversity of the genus increases to 23 species, with Mexico harboring the highest diversity with 17 described species.  Valdez-Mondragón, A., Salinas-Velasco, H. V. & Bueno-Villegas, J. (2026). A new species of the mygalomorph spider genus Euagrus Ausserer (Araneae: Euagridae) from central Mexico and new records of E. gus Coyle from Tlaxcala. Zootaxa 5810 (...

Intersexual Differences in the Gene Expression of Phoneutria depilata (Araneae, Ctenidae) Toxins Revealed by Venom Gland Transcriptome Analyses (June 2023)

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Intersexual Differences in the Gene Expression of Phoneutria depilata (Araneae, Ctenidae) Toxins Revealed by Venom Gland Transcriptome Analyses

Abstract

The wandering spider, Phoneutria depilata, is one of Colombia’s most active nocturnal arthropod predators of vertebrates and invertebrates. Its venom has been a relevant subject of study in the last two decades. However, the scarcity of transcriptomic data for the species limits our knowledge of the distinct components present in its venom for linking the mainly neurotoxic effects of the spider venom to a particular molecular target. The transcriptome of the P. depilata venom gland was analyzed to understand the effect of different diets or sex and the impact of these variables on the composition of the venom. We sequenced venom glands obtained from ten males and ten females from three diet treatments: (i) invertebrate: Tenebrio molitor, (ii) vertebrate: Hemidactylus frenatus, and (iii) mixed (T. molitor + H. frenatus). Of 17,354 assembled transcripts from all samples, 65 transcripts relating to venom production differed between males and females. Among them, 36 were classified as neurotoxins, 14 as serine endopeptidases, 11 as other proteins related to venom production, three as metalloprotease toxins, and one as a venom potentiator. There were no differences in transcripts across the analyzed diets, but when considering the effect of diets on differences between the sexes, 59 transcripts were differentially expressed. Our findings provide essential information on toxins differentially expressed that can be related to sex and the plasticity of the diet of P. depilata and thus can be used as a reference for venomics of other wandering spider species.

Ramírez, Diego Sierra, Juan F. Alzate, Yuri Simone, Arie van der Meijden, Giovany Guevara, Lida Marcela Franco Pérez, Julio César González-Gómez, and Carlos F. Prada Quiroga. 2023. "Intersexual Differences in the Gene Expression of Phoneutria depilata (Araneae, Ctenidae) Toxins Revealed by Venom Gland Transcriptome Analyses" Toxins 15, no. 7: 429. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins15070429