Biochemical characterisation and substrate-specific proteolytic diversity of venom metalloproteinases in African puff adders

  By 4028mdk09 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11200575 Biochemical characterisation and substrate-specific proteolytic diversity of venom metalloproteinases in African puff adders Abstract The puff adder ( Bitis arietans ) is a highly venomous viper responsible for many snakebite fatalities in Africa, yet there have been few geographically comprehensive analyses of its venom proteins, particularly of the proteases that play a key role in pathology of envenoming. To address this, we have isolated, identified and characterised the bioactivity of the venom metalloproteases of puff adders obtained from a range of localities. Prominent in all venoms was a PI snake venom metalloproteinase (SVMP), derived from a larger PII precursor. This protein existed as either non-glycosylated (21 kDa) or glycosylated, the latter containing either one (26 kDa) or two N-glycans (30 kDa). All the venoms we tested contained either one or the other form: none had...

New record of the Arabian Endemic Tarantula Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Eumenophorinae) from southern Oman, with notes on its predator

 


New record of the Arabian Endemic Tarantula Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Eumenophorinae) from southern Oman, with notes on its predator

Abstract

The present communication deals with the recording of Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae) from the Afrotropical part of Oman (Dhofar region). This species is recorded from Southern Oman for the second time. A brief description of the morphology of S. ferox is provided, along with notes on its predator, the tarantula hawk Hemipepsis heros (Guérin-Méneville, 1849) (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae).

Al-Jahdhami, A. A., Al-Hashmi, S. A., Albusaidi, A. H., Al-Riamy, A. S. W., Al-Naabi, H. S., & Al-Hadhrami, M. A. (2025). New record of the Arabian Endemic Tarantula Satyrex ferox Zamani & von Wirth, 2025 (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Eumenophorinae) from southern Oman, with notes on its predator. EntomoBrasilis18, e1124. https://doi.org/10.12741/ebrasilis.v18.e1124