Venom Mass Fingerprints for Species Delimitation, Reloaded: A Test Case with Italian Scorpions (Euscorpius)

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  Venom Mass Fingerprints for Species Delimitation, Reloaded: A Test Case with Italian Scorpions (Euscorpius) Abstract Scorpion venoms are complex mixtures of bioactive compounds including proteins, peptides and enzymes. Although venoms exhibit substantial intraspecific variation, some compounds appear to be species-specific, highlighting their potential as chemotaxonomic markers. Venom mass fingerprints (MFPs) derived from Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass Spectrometry (MS) have been proposed as a means of delimiting species. However, their utility for species delimitation has rarely been evaluated against independent sources of taxonomic evidence. In the present study, the performance of MALDI-TOF MS-based venom peptide barcoding (mass ranges of m/z 800‒4500 and m/z 3000‒10,000) was assessed in 52 populations of eight Italian species of the scorpion genus Euscorpius Thorell, 1876, representing different levels of evolutionary divergenc...

Unmasking trends and drivers of the international arachnid trade (07JUL2023)

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Unmasking trends and drivers of the international arachnid trade


Introduction: 
The global biodiversity crisis represents a major threat to humanity, with the worldwide animal trade being identified as a major driving force. Although vertebrate trade has been subject to intensified research, the extent of invertebrate trade remains understudied. Recent analyses of arachnids (i.e., spiders and scorpions) suggest that there is a large and still-expanding international market which has the potential to threaten natural populations. Whether or not captive breeding has the potential to decrease collection pressure on wild arachnid populations has not been investigated, nor have the temporal dynamics or the trade purposes of arachnids been examined.

Herzig V, Hauke TJ and Lüddecke T (2023), Unmasking trends and drivers of the

international arachnid trade. Front. Arachn. Sci. 2:1161383., 

doi: 10.3389/frchs.2023.1161383