What’s in a Sting? Components of Stingray Venom, Bee Venom, and More 

By Sol Vu

What is venom made of?

Snake bites, bee stings, and stingray strikes all have things in common. It’s not just the “Ouch!” you let out, but also: venom. Many people are already familiar with the venom of snakes and bees but did you know stingrays also have venom? This venom is what makes their strikes so painful, with effects lasting days and possibly weeks. 

 But what are the components of stingray venom, and how does it compare to other venoms?

What Do We Know? Not Much…

Fish venom is an understudied field compared to reptile venom or bee venom. One reason is because fish venoms (including stingray venom) are hard to store/transport for study. This is due to a variety of factors such as heat sensitivity of the venom. In addition, the danger of a stingray strike comes not only from the venom but other factors. Stingray venom itself is non-lethal under normal circumstances unless you’ve been hit in a vital area or complications with infection post-strike occur. So, there’s been less push to study this topic, and it is only recently that fish and stingray venom have been investigated more thoroughly.

Components of Venoms

In general, venom will contain proteins, enzymes, and peptides amongst many things. The exact components of venom will vary between animals and species, however.

European honey bee Apis mellifera (A) and lyophilized bee venom (B) [4]

Honeybees are an insect most people are familiar with. They are widespread throughout the U.S. and infamously are the producers of honey. The Western honey bee or European honey bee’s venom is mostly: water, melittin, with some other proteins, peptides and other substances [4]. Peptides are made of amino acids (as are proteins) but are typically smaller than proteins [7]. Melittin is a peptide with potential use in cancer treatment that is currently being researched [4,5].

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox. Photographed by Holger Krisp

Rattlesnakes are common here in California, where there are 7 different species. Their rattling tail is iconic and makes them fascinating creatures. The venom of rattlesnakes is mostly phospholipase A2 (PLA2), snake venom serine protease (SVSP), and snake venom metalloprotease (SVMP)[8]. Phospholipase A2 is a type of enzyme that is involved in causing inflammation [3]. Snake venom serine protease and snake venom metalloprotease are protein families found in snake venom, of which there are varying functions.
Stingray venom is less studied than other species but recent discoveries in this topic can help guide future studies. There has been no investigation into the Round Stingray which is the most common in Southern California as of now, but the venom of other species has been investigated. A study published in 2021 analyzed the venom from five different stingray species [6]. Based on this study, there was a lot of translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) and hyaluronidase found in the venoms [2,6]. In addition, there were serine proteases, metalloproteases, and other substances [6]. However, in other studies, it has been found that these results can vary wildly depending on species [1]. This may be due to many factors including the methods used to study the venom itself. 

Common stingray, Dasyatis pastinaca by Florin DUMITRESCU
One of the species studied in [6].

None of the species in this article were in the same family as the Round Stingray (Urobatis halleri) and there is little information available online about the specific components of their venom. At CSULB, the STABB LAB is trying to figure this out currently! 

How is Venom Different?

Venom is the name for a type of toxin delivered through a bite, sting or similar action. Many different animals and species have venom. In snakes and spiders, venom is delivered through a powerful bite to capture prey. For stingrays, venom is used mostly as a defense mechanism against predators. 
Although the protein families for different animal venoms may be similar, the specifics of what exactly goes into an animal’s venom is different. This may even vary between individuals of a species depending on their diet or age.
In different animals, venom is the result of convergent evolution. Convergent evolution is when similar traits evolve in unrelated species. Another example of convergent evolution would be both birds and bats having wings. Birds and bats don’t have a common winged ancestor through which they inherited wings but instead both separately evolved wings. In the case of venom: stingrays, spiders, and bees all evolved venom independently from each other.

Amongst stingray species, their venom will be different from each other. So although they have a common ancestor, their venom won’t be exactly the same. This is due to a process called speciation. Speciation is the process through which a species differentiates and becomes multiple distinct species. Part of this evolutionary process concerning stingrays means that their venom will have different components from one species to another.

Picture from John Romanes': 
Darwin and after Darwin: An exposition of the Darwinian 
theory and a discussion of post-Darwinian questions - 
I The Darwinian theory. P. 56, Fig. 5. Chicago, 1892. 
biodiversitylibrary.org

Why Does it Matter?

 Understanding venoms can help us create antivenom so less harm is experienced by the victim. Venom also may have medicinal uses in treating diseases like cancer.

1. Barbarose, KC et al. “Comparative study on extracts from the tissue covering the stingers of freshwater (Potamotrygon falkneri) and marine (Dasyatis guttata) stingrays” Toxicon vol. 50, 5: 676-687. 2007, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2007.06.002
2. Bommer, Ulrich-Axel, and Bernd-Joachim Thiele. “The translationally controlled tumour protein (TCTP).” The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology vol. 36,3 (2004): 379-85. doi:10.1016/s1357-2725(03)00213-9
3. Casale J, et. al “Phospholipase A2.” Biochemistry 2023 May 1. StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK534851/
4. Gajski, Goran et al. “Bee Venom: Composition and Anticancer Properties.” Toxins vol. 16,3 117. 29 Feb. 2024, doi:10.3390/toxins16030117
5. Guha, Shantanu et al. “Applications and evolution of melittin, the quintessential membrane active peptide.” Biochemical pharmacology vol. 193 (2021): 114769. doi:10.1016/j.bcp.2021.114769
6. Kirchhoff, K.N. et.al “Stingray Venom Proteins: Mechanisms of Action Revealed Using a Novel Network Pharmacology Approach.” Marine Drugs. 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/md20010027 
7. Rogers, Kara. "What Is the Difference Between a Peptide and a Protein?". Encyclopedia Britannica, 13 Jun. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-difference-between-a-peptide-and-a-protein.
8. Tasoulis, Theo, and Geoffrey K Isbister. “A Review and Database of Snake Venom Proteomes.” Toxins vol. 9,9 290. 18 Sep. 2017, doi:10.3390/toxins9090290

This post was guest written by the amazing Sol Vu, in collaboration with Dr. Ben Perlman and the Stabb Lab