20th International Congress of Arachnology

of Helsinki, PO Box 17, 00014 Helsinki, Finland;

Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology,

Estación Experimenta de Zonas Áridas (EEZA, CSIC),

Carretera de Sacramento, s/n. La Cañada de San

Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain

marnedo@ub.edu

Arthropods fill an unparalleled variety of ecological niches

and functional roles providing an excellent model to assess

biodiversity and detect ecosystem perturbations at fine tem-

poral and spatial scales. Nevertheless, because of their high

abundance and diversity but poor taxonomic knowledge, they

have been rarely included in monitoring and conservation

programs. Here we propose to circumvent limitations in the

study of arthropod diversity by combining rapid biodiversity

assessment protocols with DNA barcoding tools. Spiders are

among the most diverse and ubiquitous arthropod groups

and play a key role in ecosystem functioning as one of the

most diverse and abundant predators in terrestrial habi-

tats. In this contribution, we will present preliminary data

on the biodiversity patterns of spider communities in the

white-oak forests of the Spanish Network of National Parks.

White oak woods are among the most representative Iberian

forests, show high levels of endemicity, are of conservation

concern, and their evolutionary history in the peninsula

is relatively well-known. Spiders were collected using the

COBRA 50 protocol, a semi-quantitative inventorying

protocol that standardizes collecting effort and efficiently

combines different collecting methods, conducted during

both daylight and night. We conducted a total of 384 hours

of sampling in 16 1-ha plots distributed across six Spanish

National Parks, spanning approximately 1000 km across

both a latitudinal and a longitudinal gradient. We collected

approximately 20,700 specimens, representing 40 families,

185 genera and 384 species. Among the specimens, we discov-

ered 13 putative new species and 11 additional new records

for the Iberian Peninsula. Species richness ranged from 40

to 100 species. We further generated a DNA barcode library

of the identified species to facilitate automatic identification

for future monitoring programs, and provide phylogenetic

information for inferring phylogenetic diversity patterns

Keywords: bioinventorying, DNA barcodes, species rich-

ness, replacement, gradients

Student - Poster Presentation

The organization of the spider nervous system

as revealed by dopamine immunolabeling

*Anthony Auletta, Mara C.P. Rue, Cynthia M. Harley,

Karen A. Mesce

University of Minnesota Department of Entomology,

219 Hodson Hall, 1980 Folwell Avenue, Saint Paul,

Minnesota, 55108

aulet002@umn.edu

Spiders (Arthropoda: Araneae) display remarkably diverse

and sophisticated behaviors despite possessing fewer than

100,000 neurons. This numerical simplicity makes spiders

excellent model systems for understanding the evolution

of behavioral complexity and the neural mechanisms

that underlie it; however, little research has been done on

arachnid neurobiology. To address this gap, we utilized

immunocytochemical techniques to characterize the

distribution of dopamine (DA) in the central nervous

system (CNS) of the Floridian wolf spider

Hogna lenta

(Lycosidae). DA is a universally important modulator

of many complex behaviors across animal taxa, and our

study is the first to examine its distribution. We found that

DA was globally expressed throughout the central but not

the peripheral nervous system of

H. lenta

. In the so-called

supraesophageal mass, we found that DA was particularly

concentrated in the first and second optic neuropils (ON1

and ON2) of all eight eyes, indicating that DA plays a

critical role in modulating visual processing. DA was also

found throughout multiple layers of the arcuate body and

the bridge of what has been termed the mushroom body,

both sites of higher order sensorimotor integration. We

also observed large dopaminergic neurons in the abdomi-

nal neuromeres, which appear to project anteriorly to the

supraesophageal mass via large plurisegmental tracts. In

addition to these findings, our immunolabeling revealed

distinct divisions in the leg and abdominal neuromeres,

which may reflect ancestral segmentation of the nervous

system. Taken together, these findings reveal that DA is

widespread in the spider CNS and underscores the impor-

tant modulatory functions of DA in spiders.

Keywords: Lycosidae,

Hogna

, dopamine, neurobiology,

behavior, immunocytochemistry, physiology

DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE

REPORTS

No. 3, July 2, 2016

Cushing