Venomics and insect prey specificity of the Central American scorpion Centruroides limbatus (Pocock, 1898) and its comparison with close species Centruroides bicolor (Pocock, 1898).

Centruroides limbatus and Centruroides bicolor are phylogenetically related species with different geographical distributions. The scarce envenomation cases in Costa Rica suggest they are probably 'mammal harmless', but their venom's effect on other animals has been poorly characterized. We aimed to describe the protein venom composition of C. limbatus and C. bicolor, in the context of their trophic habits and prey specificity. We applied a proteomics shotgun approach to analyze the composition of venom peptides of C. limbatus and compare them with those expressed by C. bicolor. We also tested the venom's lethal effect on insects and their ability to induce paralysis. Among the recovered NaTxs, there were C. bicolor Cbi1, C. suffusus CssIX, C. noxius Cn11, C. gracilis Cg2, and C. vittatus β-toxins. Regarding KTxs, we identified ergtoxins, limbatotoxins, and hongotoxins, all peptides commonly found in Centruroides venoms, as well as C. noxius cobatoxin-1 and C. margaritatus Cm39. Regarding lethality, as demonstrated with other buthid venoms, crickets were very sensitive, whereas mealworms were the most resistant. The current study shows that these scorpion species display similar venom compositions, including previously identified peptides from other Centruroides with and without medical importance, and as expected, they show only minor specificity differences.