Low cost venom extractor based on Arduino® board for electrical venom extraction from arthropods and other small animals

Abstract

Extracting venom from small species is usually challenging. We describe here an affordable and versatile electrical venom extractor based on the Arduino® Mega 2560 Board, which is designed to extract venom from arthropods and other small animals. The device includes fine tuning of stimulation time and voltage. It was used to collect venom without apparent deleterious effects, and characterized for the first time the venom of Zoropsis spinimana, a common spider in French Mediterranean regions.