An unusually complex venom system in araneophagous palp-footed spiders (Palpimanidae)

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  An unusually complex venom system in araneophagous palp-footed spiders (Palpimanidae) Venoms are key adaptive traits in many animal lineages, yet their structural and functional diversity in spiders remains poorly investigated. Here, we present an initial characterization of the venom system of palp-footed spiders (Palpimanidae), a family specialized in hunting other spiders. Using micro-computed tomography, we found that the venom glands of the single species examined, Palpimanus gibbulus , exhibit a complex, multi-lobed morphology that is unusual among araneomorph spiders. Proteo-transcriptomic analyses of two Palpimanus venoms ( P. gibbulus and P. cyprius ) revealed highly diverse putative toxin repertoires comprising hundreds of peptides and proteins, including numerous novel putative neurotoxins, cytotoxins, enzymes, and allergens. Five major families of cysteine-rich palpitoxins were identified as the dominant putative neurotoxic components in both species, displaying con...

A remarkable new species of the genus Chilobrachys Karsch, 1892(Araneae: Theraphosidae) from Yunnan, China

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A remarkable new species of the genus Chilobrachys Karsch, 1892(Araneae: Theraphosidae) from Yunnan, China

Abstract

A new spider species of the genus Chilobrachys Karsch, 1892 of the family Theraphosidae Thorell, 1869is described from Yunnan, China: C. sherwoodae Lin & Li, sp. nov. based on both sexes. Photos and amorphological description of the new species are given. The type specimens are deposited in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IZCAS) in Beijing, China.

Etymology: The species is named after Miss Danni Sherwood, who kindly provided photographs of the types of other Indochina Chilobrachys, which enabled us to recognise the new species; noun (name) ingenitive case.

Acknowledgements: Ming Liang (China, Kunming) and Pengkai Ouyang (China, Kunming) helped in fieldwork. Danni Sherwood polished the English.