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DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURE & SCIENCE
REPORTS
|
No. 3, July 2, 2016
Cushing
hygro/thermoreceptive function for Sb, but the function of
Ahs remains unclear. We discuss the specific morphological
characteristics in support of these functional inferences,
the adequacy of the evaporation system of Sb to specific
hygroreception mechanisms and a putative homology of
the triad to the pit-like tarsal organ of other arachnids.
Keywords: sensilla basiconic, hygroreception, transmis-
sion electron microscopy, sensory biology
Student - Poster presentation
Not so touchy after all: ultrastructure of
chemoreceptive tarsal sensilla in an armored
harvestman (Arachnida: Opiliones) and evi-
dence of olfaction in 17 families of Laniatores
Guilherme Gainett
1,2
, Peter Michalik
3
, Carsten H. G.
Müller
3
, Gonzalo Giribet
4
, Giovanni Talarico
5
, Rodrigo
Willemart H.
1, 2, 6
1
Laboratório de Ecologia Sensorial e Comportamento de
Artrópodes, Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades,
Universidade de Sao Paulo, Rua Arlindo Bettio, 1000,
Ermelino Matarazzo, Sao Paulo, SP 03828-000, Brazil;
2
Programa de Pos-Graduaço em Zoologia, Instituto
de Biociências, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Rua do
Matao, 321, Travessa 14, Sao Paulo, SP 05508-090,
Brazil;
3
Zoological Institute and Museum, Department
of General and Systematic Zoology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt
Universität Greifswald, Loitzer Str. 26, D-17489 Greif-
swald, Germany.
4
Museum of Comparative Zoology and
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA;
5
Department of Forensic Toxicology, Institute of Legal
Medicine, University of Greifswald, Kuhstrasse 30, 17489
Greifswald, Germany;
6
Programa de Pos-Graduaço em
Ecologia e Evoluço, Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo,
Campus Diadema, Rua Professor Artur Riedel, 275,
Jardim Eldorado, Diadema, SP 09972-270, Brazil.
ggainett@gmail.comHarvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) are especially depen-
dent on chemical sensing, often being regarded as touchy
animals. Information on harvestmen sensilla is scarce
when compared with other arachnid orders, and even more
so when concerning internal morphology. Using scanning
(SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy, we
investigated tarsal sensilla on the distal tarsomeres (DT)
of all pairs of legs of
Heteromitobates discolor
(Laniato-
res, Gonyleptidae) and surveyed (SEM) the sensilla on DT
I and II of species from all main lineages in the suborder
Laniatores (17 families).The DT I and II of
H. discolor
are equipped with wall-pored falciform hairs (two types),
wall-pored sensilla chaetica (two types) and tip-pored
sensilla chaetica, while DT III and IV are mainly covered
in trichomes (non-sensory) and tip-pored sensilla chae-
tica. Ultrastructure supports an olfactory function for all
wall-pored sensilla and a dual gustatory/touch function
for tip-pored sensilla chaetica. Wall-pored sensilla occur
in all Laniatores investigated, demonstrating the wide-
spread occurrence in the suborder and highlighting the
importance of both legs I and II as the sensory appendages
of laniatorean harvestmen. Our results provide the first
morphological evidence of olfactory receptors in Laniatores
(2/3 of Opiliones species) and suggest that olfaction is more
important for harvestmen than previously thought.
Keywords: olfaction; Goniosomatinae, wall pores;
sensory morphology, chemoreceptors
Oral presentation
Genomic perspectives on the evolution of
black widow and house spider venoms
Jessica Garb
1
, Kerry Gendreau
1,2
, Robert Haney
1
, Evelyn
Schwager
1
1
Department of Biological Sciences, University of
Massachusetts Lowell, 198 Riverside Street, Lowell, MA
01854;
2
Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia
Tech, Biocomplexity Institute, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA
Jessica_Garb@uml.eduVenom production is a defining feature of spiders that
enables their predatory lifestyle. As venoms are secretions
largely composed of toxic proteins and peptides, these mol-
ecules provide a relatively direct link between ecologically
important genes and their functional roles, and makes evo-
lutionary studies of venom production especially suitable
for genomic investigation. This presentation will provide an
update on recent advances in spider genomics for under-
standing the evolution of theridiid venoms. Specifically,