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...

Four new species of the spider genus Oecobius Lucas, 1846 (Araneae: Oecobiidae) from northwestern Mexico

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Four new species of the spider genus Oecobius Lucas, 1846 (Araneae: Oecobiidae) from northwestern Mexico

Abstract

Four new species of the genus Oecobius Lucas, 1846 (Araneae, Oecobiidae) from northwestern Mexico are described, all of them based on both sexes: O. culichi spec. nov. and O. yoreme spec. nov. from Sinaloa, O. yaqui spec. nov. from Sonora, and O. sudcaliforniana spec. nov. from Baja California Sur. In addition, we provide taxonomic remarks of two native species: O. hoffmannae Jiménez & Llinas, 2005 and O. isolatoides Shear, 1970.

Alcántar-Valenzuela, J.J., Chamé-Vázquez, D. & Jiménez, M.-L. (2025) Four new species of the spider genus Oecobius Lucas, 1846 (Araneae: Oecobiidae) from northwestern Mexico. Zootaxa, 5679 (4), 501–520. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5679.4.3