Sonoran Desert arthropods
Ten representative venomous species, five arthropod orders, one collection range, and a venom chemistry only partially understood.
Bark Scorpion
Tarantula Hawk
Maricopa Harvester Ant
Red Velvet Ant (Cow Killer)
Thistledown Velvet Ant
Tucson Blonde Tarantula
Grass Spider
Black Widow
Arizona Giant Centipede
Arizona Wheel Bug
Ten venomous arthropods of the T-Hawk collection range, Sonoran Desert, Arizona.
Five orders, not five species
Scorpions, spiders, aculeate wasps and ants, centipedes, and assassin bugs are separated by hundreds of millions of years of independent evolution. Sampling across orders, rather than deep within one, is what makes convergent hits on shared human drug targets interpretable as validation instead of coincidence.
Undercharacterized on purpose is different from undercharacterized by neglect
These animals are famous, painful, and well studied as natural history; however, there is very limited understanding of the genomics and proteomics of their venoms. This gives T-Hawk a first-to-characterize opportunity.
Where these lineages sit in deep time, and why that timing matters pharmacologically, is laid out on the next page.