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

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  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...

Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species

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Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species

Abstract

Anyphaena is a diverse spider genus with 66 species distributed in North America. This is the type genus of the family Anyphaenidae and comprises five species groups (accentuata, celer, pacifica, pectorosa and porta), with the celer group having the highest species richness. Here, we conducted an extensive revision of Anyphaena specimens from several North American spider collections, as part of a comprehensive study of the accentuata and celer species groups in the region. As main results, we emended the descriptions with detailed information for male and female genitalia for two the previously proposed species of accentuata group and thirty-two previously proposed species of celer group from North America and describe eight new species from Mexico: A. brescoviti sp. nov., A. estriada sp. nov., A. mateoi sp. nov., A. martinezae sp. nov., A. monserratae sp. nov., A. platnicki sp. nov., A. reynae sp. nov. and A. sundevalli sp. nov. Furthermore, we provide new geographical records for A. subgibba O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1896, A. dixiana (Chamberlin & Woodbury, 1929) and A. arbida Platnick, 1974 from Mexico, and A. subgibba from Panama. We provide photographs of habitus and genitalia for the previous described species. We also provide updated distribution maps and an identification key for all the North American species of the celer group.

García-García, M. Ángel, Ibarra-Núñez, G., Sánchez-García, J.A. & Jiménez, M.L. (2026) Taxonomic review of the North American species of the accentuata and celer groups of the genus Anyphaena Sundevall, 1833 (Araneae: Anyphaenidae), with description of eight new species. Zootaxa, 5788 (1), 1–106. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5788.1.1