20th International Congress of Arachnology

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DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE REPORTS | No. 3, July 2, 2016
strong synapsin-immunoreactivity as well as allatostatin-
immunoreactivity. The mushroom bodies and the arcuate
body are considered to be higher integrating neuropils
of the brain. Both are connected to the visual neuropils
in M. muscosa - the mushroom bodies to both, first and
second order visual neuropils of the lateral eyes, and the
AB to the second order visual neuropils of the anterior
median eyes through an optic tract. The large size and
apparent strong link to vision of mushroom bodies and
arcuate body in M. muscosa adds further support to the
hypothesis, that these neuropils play an important role in
cognition and locomotion control of jumping spiders.
Keywords: neuroanatomy, jumping spider, cognition,
neuropils
Student - oral presentation
A transcriptomic approach to exploring
pseudoscorpion subterranean trait evolution
*Charles D.R. Stephen, Jason E. Bond
Department of Biological Sciences, 331 Funchess
Hall, Auburn University, Alabama, 36849, USA
Rapid advances in sequencing and computing technolo-
gies are having a transformative effect on the study of trait
evolution in subterranean organisms. Although only
vertebrate models have been developed to date, arthropods
are by far the largest faunal component of subterranean
systems. In this extreme environment pseudoscorpions
can be very abundant and are species-rich relative to other
arthropods. This makes them ideal models for explor-
ing subterranean trait evolution. Most extant species are
poorly vagile, and several genera have congeners that are
exclusively surface or subterranean and express pheno-
types along a continuum of cave- and surface-adaptation
in their visual and integumentary systems. However, avail-
able molecular data is sparse: there is no nuclear genome,
but two mitochondrial genomes and one transcriptome
have been published. It is unknown whether the integu-
ment color is from pigmentation. To address these issues
and develop pseudoscorpions as model taxa, first resources
will be developed and then differential expression (DE)
analyses will be run between cave- and surface-adapted
lineages. Congeners of Kleptochthonius (Chthoniidae)
and Hesperochernes (Chernetidae) will be used. Klep-
tochthonius expresses the full continuum in visual and
integumentary systems between cave- and surface-adapted
species, while Hesperochernes are eyeless and have
thickened cuticles with red coloration. Transcriptomes
will be assembled from representative congeners, then DE
analyses between cave- and surface-adapted pseudoscor-
pions will explore signals in the visual and integumentary
systems between cave- and surface-adapted species. Known
arthropod pigment pathways will be mined to see if pig-
ments are responsible for red color in Hesperochernes. We
present preliminary results from DE analyses of original
transcriptomic resources that we have developed from
cave- and surface-adapted pseudoscorpions and from
our searching transcriptomes for components of pigment
pathways.
Keywords: Pseudoscorpiones, pigment, trait evolution,
subterranean
Oral presentation
The effects of octopamine and serotonin
on a wolf spider’s mating behaviors
Brent Stoffer, George W. Uetz
University of Cincinnati, Department of Biological
Sciences P.O. Box 210006 Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
The underlying mechanisms of individual variation in
mating behaviors often remain unknown. Biogenic amines
are a potential source of such variation, as they can affect
a wide range of behaviors by acting as neurotransmitters,
neuromodulators, or neurohormones. Octopamine (OA)
and serotonin (5-HT), for example, have been shown
to regulate behaviors including aggression and mating
behaviors in arthropods. The regulation of spider mating
and aggressive behaviors, however, might be particularly
important, as females might have to decide whether to
mate with, or prey upon, courting males. The brush-legged
wolf spider, Schizocosa ocreata , is a useful study organ-
ism to investigate the effects of OA and 5-HT on mating
behaviors given the behavioral evidence for variation in
male courtship, variation in female choosiness, male use
20th International Congress of Arachnology