Inter-individual variability in equine antibody responses to African snake venoms follows heavy-tailed distributions with implications for antivenom production

  Inter-individual variability in equine antibody responses to African snake venoms follows heavy-tailed distributions with implications for antivenom production Abstract Variability in the antibody response of horses used for snake antivenom manufacture is well recognized, yet its statistical structure and implications for industrial productivity remain poorly characterized. In this study, we quantified antivenom antibody titers by ELISA in a cohort of 14 horses immunized with venoms from the clinically most important snakes in sub-Saharan Africa. To integrate antibody levels with plasma availability, we calculated the Cumulative Plasma Productivity (CPP) by converting individual plasma volumes into titer-corrected equivalents and sequentially pooling these volumes according to their corrected contribution. Distributional analysis revealed right-skewed, heavy-tailed patterns better approximated by a log-normal model than by a strict Pareto (power-law) form, with approximately 20–3...

A new species of the genus Calommata Lucas, 1837, with first description of the male of Calommata hangzhica Li & Xu, 2022 from Hunan, China (Araneae, Atypidae)

 


A new species of the genus Calommata Lucas, 1837, with first description of the male of Calommata hangzhica Li & Xu, 2022 from Hunan, China (Araneae, Atypidae)

Abstract

A new spider species of the genus Calommata Lucas, 1837 is described from China: C. yueluensis sp. nov. (♂♀). The male of C. hangzhica Li & Xu, 2022 is described for the first time. Detailed descriptions, photographs of the habitus and copulatory organs, as well as the COI gene confirming that the male belongs to C. hangzhica are provided. The distribution map and taxonomic key to Chinese Calommata species are presented.

Wu F, Yan W, Zhou G, Peng X (2026) A new species of the genus Calommata Lucas, 1837, with first description of the male of Calommata hangzhica Li & Xu, 2022 from Hunan, China (Araneae, Atypidae). ZooKeys 1278: 201-213. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1278.183005