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...

New species of Phonotimpus Gertsch & Davis (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from Central Mexico

 


New species of Phonotimpus Gertsch & Davis (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from Central Mexico

ABSTRACT

Seven new species of the genus Phonotimpus Gertsch & Davis (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from Central Mexico (Hidalgo and San Luis Potosí) are described: P. buenoi sp. n. (♀, ♂), P. coacuilco sp. n. (♀), P. huasca sp. n. (♀, ♂), P. ibarrai sp. n. (♀), P. jacala sp. n. (♀), P. pisaflores sp. n. (♀), and P. yugo sp. n. (♀, ♂). Furthermore, we provide new images of the copulatory organs of P. marialuisae Chamé-Vázquez & Ibarra-Núñez, and emend its diagnosis.

Chamé-Vázquez, D., & Jiménez, M. L. (2026). New species of Phonotimpus Gertsch & Davis (Araneae: Phrurolithidae) from Central Mexico. Journal of Natural History60(17–20), 1049–1072. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2026.2652468