Inter-individual variability in equine antibody responses to African snake venoms follows heavy-tailed distributions with implications for antivenom production

  Inter-individual variability in equine antibody responses to African snake venoms follows heavy-tailed distributions with implications for antivenom production Abstract Variability in the antibody response of horses used for snake antivenom manufacture is well recognized, yet its statistical structure and implications for industrial productivity remain poorly characterized. In this study, we quantified antivenom antibody titers by ELISA in a cohort of 14 horses immunized with venoms from the clinically most important snakes in sub-Saharan Africa. To integrate antibody levels with plasma availability, we calculated the Cumulative Plasma Productivity (CPP) by converting individual plasma volumes into titer-corrected equivalents and sequentially pooling these volumes according to their corrected contribution. Distributional analysis revealed right-skewed, heavy-tailed patterns better approximated by a log-normal model than by a strict Pareto (power-law) form, with approximately 20–3...

More Than 200 Years Later: Gluvia brunnea sp. nov. (Solifugae, Daesiidae), a Second Species of Camel Spider from the Iberian Peninsula

 

More Than 200 Years Later: Gluvia brunnea sp. nov. (Solifugae, Daesiidae), a Second Species of Camel Spider from the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

We present the description of a new species of Solifugae from the Iberian Peninsula, Gluvia brunnea sp. nov., which has been found so far in southeast Spain. The morphological description is accompanied by molecular and multiple factor analyses, jointly giving full support to the specific status of the taxon. Finally, we discuss the intraspecific variability of both species, G. dorsalis and G. brunnea sp. nov., and the recent history of the genus. We also discuss the usefulness of multiple factor analysis for quantitatively separating species, and we stress that some specimens of this new species were found in Mesovoid Shallow Substratum stations, representing the very first time that Solifugae have been captured in this type of trap.


Pertegal, Cristian, Pablo Barranco, Eva De Mas, and Jordi Moya-Laraño. 2024. "More Than 200 Years Later: Gluvia brunnea sp. nov. (Solifugae, Daesiidae), a Second Species of Camel Spider from the Iberian Peninsula" Insects 15, no. 4: 284. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15040284