Two new arthropod toxins purified from the venom of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides nigrescens

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  Two new arthropod toxins purified from the venom of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides nigrescens Abstract The venom of the slender black scorpion Centruroides nigrescens , from the State of Guerrero México, was fractionated by Sephadex G–50 gel filtration, followed by carboxymethyl cellulose ion separation and high–performance liquid chromatography, permitting to obtain two new peptides toxic to arthropods. The estimate LD 50 of the soluble venom for the insect Acheta domesticus was 11.1 μg/g body weight, and for the arthropod Armadillidium vulgare was 61.1 μg body weight . The amino acid sequence of toxin Cnige1 (toxic to A. domesticus and A. vulgare ) contains 65 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 7273.37 mass units, whereas toxin Cnige2, toxic to A. domesticus , contains 68 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 7548.81 units. Both peptides are well packed, containing 8 cysteines, which in the native venoms are forming 4 disulfide bridges each. The amino acid sequences f...

A new species of Buthus Leach, 1815 from the Atlantic coast of Morocco (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

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A new species of Buthus Leach, 1815 from the Atlantic coast of Morocco (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Abstract

The status of the Buthus population occurring on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, from Kenitra to El Jadida, originally reported to belong to Buthus occitanus occitanus (Amoreux, 1789) then remaining unnamed since studies demonstrated that B. occitanus range does not extend beyond Western Europe, is clarified and this population is described as a new species, B. maamora sp. n. The new species shows affinities with B. atlantis Pocock, 1889 and B. parroti Vachon, 1949 but can be easily distinguished from these two species by a combination of several key characters. The new taxon described here represents the 19th known Buthus species reported from Morocco and raises the number of currently recognized species for the genus Buthus to 79.


Eric Ythier. A new species of Buthus Leach, 1815 from the Atlantic coast of Morocco (Scorpiones: Buthidae). Faunitaxys, 2023, 11 (69), pp.1-7. ⟨hal-04243110⟩