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 (...

Antibiotic-producing bacteria isolated from the giant sand scorpion, Smeringurus mesaensis (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae)

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Antibiotic-producing bacteria isolated from the giant sand scorpion, Smeringurus mesaensis (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae)

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is a global health crisis. Our current arsenal of antibiotics—drugs meant to kill bacteria and stop their population growth—is becoming less effective at treating bacterial infections as resistant bacteria emerge, fueling the dire need to discover new antibiotics. Most antibiotics in use today have been discovered from bacteria. To increase the chances of finding potentially novel antibiotic molecules, we studied the relatively unexplored microbial environment of scorpion tissues, using the giant sand scorpion, Smeringurus mesaensis (Stahnke, 1957). Bacterial symbionts were isolated and cultured from the mesosoma and metasoma, and isolates were tested in a functional assay for production of antibiotics. Under the culture conditions utilized, most scorpion-derived bacteria were from the phyla of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. Fifty-five percent of the clonal isolates tested produced antibiotics, with most being Bacillus species. None of the bacterial conditioned media were cytotoxic to mammalian cells. This study suggests scorpion tissues may provide a rich source of antimicrobial molecules to help combat the antibiotic resistance crisis.


Lauren Atkinson, Christopher Shimwell, Kurt M. Lucin, Matthew R. Graham, Barbara Murdoch "Antibiotic-producing bacteria isolated from the giant sand scorpion, Smeringurus mesaensis (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae)," The Journal of Arachnology, 52(2), 116-126, (27 August 2024) 

https://doi.org/10.1636/JoA-S-22-039