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...

Spiders from the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve of Souss-Massa region (Morocco), and descriptions of two new species (Arachnida: Araneae: Gnaphosidae, Salticidae)

 


Spiders from the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve of Souss-Massa region (Morocco), and descriptions of two new species (Arachnida: Araneae: Gnaphosidae, Salticidae)

Abstract

This study presents a preliminary faunistic survey of spiders from the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco covering 39 species across 17 families collected between January 2022 and June 2025. Two species are new to science: Cesonia africana Lecigne #38; Ouakri sp. nov. and Menemerus currens Lecigne sp. nov. Five other species are new records for Morocco, i.e., Nemesia uncinata Bacelar, 1933, Phlegra yaelae Prószyński,1998, Mogrus sahariensis Berland #38; Millot, 1941, Cebrennus laurae Jäger, 2014 and Polenecia producta (Simon, 1873). Several other species, already known from Morocco, are noteworthy taxa, e.g., Aelurillus hirtipes Denis, 1960, Cebrennus rungsi Jäger, 2000, Eresus elhennawyi Řezáč, Vaněk #38; Střeštík, 2023, Oecobius machadoi Wunderlich, 1995, Olios pictus (Simon, 1885) and Steatoda ingeae Van Keer, 2024. The following new synonym is proposed: Zelotes oryx (Simon, 1880) = Zelotes tragicus (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1872) syn. nov. Our findings expand our knowledge of Moroccan spiders and highlight the biodiversity of historically poorly studied habitats, thus warranting further, targeted research.

Ouakri, N., Lecigne, S., Abou Oualid, J., & Dugon, M. (2026). Spiders from the Arganeraie Biosphere Reserve of Souss-Massa region (Morocco), and descriptions of two new species (Arachnida: Araneae: Gnaphosidae, Salticidae). European Journal of Taxonomy1051(1), 1–50. https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2026.1051.3261