First insights into the role of evolutionary history in shaping venom composition of Vipera ammodytes

Posted by
  First insights into the role of evolutionary history in shaping venom composition of Vipera ammodytes Abstract Understanding intraspecific venom variation requires distinguishing the contributions of neutral population history from natural selection. This study aims to determine whether venom variation in the Vipera ammodytes species complex is structured across eight phylogenetic lineages. Despite a complex evolutionary history, venom composition did not differ among phylogenetic units within the analytical framework used, suggesting that shared ancestry alone does not explain venom variation. Whether local adaptation to environmental conditions explains the observed variation remains an open question for future studies. Lakušić, M., Piccoli, C., Anđelković, M., Andonov, K., Burić, I., Brito, J. C., Dyugmedzhiev, A., Merdan, S., Schmid, L., Tzoras, E., Florian-Hempel, B., & Martínez-Freiría, F. (2026). First insights into the role of evolutionary history in shaping venom co...

A new cave species of Isometrus Ehrenberg 1828 from Myanmar (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Posted by

 

                      

A new cave species of Isometrus Ehrenberg 1828 from Myanmar (Scorpiones: Buthidae)

Abstract
A new species belonging to the genus Isometrus Ehrenberg 1828, subgenus Reddyanus Vachon, 1972, is described from Myanmar: Isometrus (Reddyanus) alessandroi sp. n., which was collected in Saddan Cave, located in Kayin State, in the East of the country. In recent years the number of new species added to both subgenera Isometrus and Reddyanus have increased remarkably. Nevertheless, none of these descriptions concerned Myanmar. This particular geographic situation as well as a combination of several morphological features led us to propose here this new species.
Eric Ythier, Wilson R. Lourenço. A new cave species of Isometrus Ehrenberg 1828 from Myanmar (Scorpiones: Buthidae). Faunitaxys, 2025, 13 (4), pp.1-6. ⟨10.57800/faunitaxys-13(04)⟩. ⟨hal-04912024⟩