Two new arthropod toxins purified from the venom of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides nigrescens

  Two new arthropod toxins purified from the venom of the Mexican scorpion Centruroides nigrescens Abstract The venom of the slender black scorpion Centruroides nigrescens , from the State of Guerrero México, was fractionated by Sephadex G–50 gel filtration, followed by carboxymethyl cellulose ion separation and high–performance liquid chromatography, permitting to obtain two new peptides toxic to arthropods. The estimate LD 50 of the soluble venom for the insect Acheta domesticus was 11.1 μg/g body weight, and for the arthropod Armadillidium vulgare was 61.1 μg body weight . The amino acid sequence of toxin Cnige1 (toxic to A. domesticus and A. vulgare ) contains 65 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 7273.37 mass units, whereas toxin Cnige2, toxic to A. domesticus , contains 68 amino acids, with a molecular mass of 7548.81 units. Both peptides are well packed, containing 8 cysteines, which in the native venoms are forming 4 disulfide bridges each. The amino acid sequences f...

New data on Wangaraneus Mi, Wang & Li, 2024 (Araneae, Araneidae), with descriptions of two new species from Xizang, China

 

New data on Wangaraneus Mi, Wang & Li, 2024 (Araneae, Araneidae), with descriptions of two new species from Xizang, China

Abstract

New data on Wangaraneus Mi, Wang & Li, 2024 are provided based on morphological examination and mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) sequencing. Two new species from Xizang, China, W. delicatus Mi & Wang, sp. nov. and Wangaraneus fencha Mi & Wang, sp. nov., are described and illustrated based on both sexes. In addition, two new combinations are proposed and established: W. cruciformis (Yin, Peng & Wang, 1994), comb. nov., transferred from Singa C.L. Koch, 1836, and W. quadrituberculatus (Roy, Sen, Saha & Raychaudhuri, 2014), comb. nov., transferred from Chorizopes O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1871. Wangaraneus zioni (Mi, Li & Pham, 2023), syn. nov. is synonymized with W. cruciformis. The newly described species are diagnosed based on detailed comparisons of somatic morphology and copulatory organs with similar congeneric species. Their placement within Wangaraneus is further supported by COI sequence evidence. An identification key to the known species (except W. quadrituberculatus) is provided.

Zhu H, Wang C, Smagghe G, Mi X (2026) New data on Wangaraneus Mi, Wang & Li, 2024 (Araneae, Araneidae), with descriptions of two new species from Xizang, China. ZooKeys 1291: 325-339. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1291.203690