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

Posted by
  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...

Systematic revision of Dongmoa Roewer (Arachnida: Opiliones: Podoctidae), with reassignment of two Chinese species from Bonea and description of a new species from Vietnam

Posted by

 


Systematic revision of Dongmoa Roewer (Arachnida: Opiliones: Podoctidae), with reassignment of two Chinese species from Bonea and description of a new species from Vietnam

ABSTRACT

A new species of the genus Dongmoa Roewer is described from Thanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, with its intricate external morphology examined using micro-CT scanning. Until now, Dongmoa included only two species, one from northern Vietnam and another from the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Here, we provide a revised diagnosis of the genus, with detailed comparisons to the closely related genera Bonea and Erecanana. In addition, two species from Hainan Island, China, previously assigned to Bonea, are transferred to Dongmoa, increasing the total number of recognised species in the genus to five. This study represents the first modern systematic treatment of Dongmoa, substantially refining the traditional Roewerian framework and enabling a clearer delimitation of species distributed across Indochina and Japan. Moreover, the recognition of a previously overlooked but variable morphological structure, here called the insula lunata, highlights its potential relevance for taxonomy within Podoctidae, providing the basis for future phylogenetic studies.

Kury, A. B., Machado, G., & Pham, D. S. (2026). Systematic revision of Dongmoa Roewer (Arachnida: Opiliones: Podoctidae), with reassignment of two Chinese species from Bonea and description of a new species from Vietnam. Journal of Natural History, 60(17–20), 1005–1024. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2026.2650134