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

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  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...

Two new wolf-spider species in the genus Hippasosa from Asia (Araneae, Lycosidae)

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Two new wolf-spider species in the genus Hippasosa from Asia (Araneae, Lycosidae)

Abstract

Two new species of the wolf-spider genus Hippasosa Roewer, 1960 are described from Asia: Hippasosa thailandica sp. nov. (♂) from Thailand and H. yunnanensis sp. nov. (♂♀) from China. Detailed species descriptions, morphological photographs, genitalia illustrations, and distribution maps of the new species are presented. Photographs of H. qiongzhongensis (Yin & Peng, 1997) are also provided for comparison purposes.

Wang L-Y, Irfan M, Zhang Z-S (2025) Two new wolf-spider species in the genus Hippasosa from Asia (Araneae, Lycosidae). ZooKeys 1226: 339-348. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1226.137240