Fig. 1.
The complex interplay of phylogeny, diet and other factors in shaping the prey-specific lethality of Echis venoms and the cross-reactivity of antivenom. Viper diet predicts specific venom lethality to natural prey (scorpions), but this is poorly replicated in comparable assays run on a convenient model arthropod, and the species do not differ significantly in their mouse lethality. The cross-neutralisation capability of EchiTabG, raised against E. ocellatus (red arrow) is predicted by phylogeny but not diet or any prey-specific lethality. The ED50 for E. carinatus was above the maximum test threshold of 150 μL/mouse. Redrawn from Casewell et al. (2014). * = significantly (p<0.5) more toxic than next most toxic venom; ns = non-significant.