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Current Biology : CB Jul 2018Compared to other arthropods, such as crustaceans or insects, the term 'chelicerate' often does not evoke a similar sense of recognition or familiarity. Yet the...
Compared to other arthropods, such as crustaceans or insects, the term 'chelicerate' often does not evoke a similar sense of recognition or familiarity. Yet the subphylum Chelicerata has been encountered by every living person today, frequently to the effect of fear, awe, or outright revulsion. Chelicerates include such familiar groups as spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks, as well as an array of bizarre and unfamiliar forms, such as vinegaroons, camel spiders, and hooded tick spiders (Figure 1).
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Behavior, Animal; Biodiversity; Life History Traits; Phylogeny
PubMed: 30040933
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.036 -
Current Opinion in Insect Science Apr 2019Defensive microbes are of great interest for their roles in arthropod health, disease transmission, and biocontrol efforts. Obligate bacterial passengers of arthropods,... (Review)
Review
Defensive microbes are of great interest for their roles in arthropod health, disease transmission, and biocontrol efforts. Obligate bacterial passengers of arthropods, such as Spiroplasma, confer protection against the natural enemies of their hosts to improve their own fitness. Although known for less than a decade, Spiroplasma's defensive reach extends to diverse parasites, both microbial and multicellular. We provide an overview of known defensive phenotypes against nematodes, parasitoid wasps, and fungi, and highlight recent studies supporting the role of Spiroplasma-encoded ribosome-inactivating proteins in protection. With cellular features well-suited for life in the hemolymph, broad distribution among invertebrate hosts, and the capacity to repeatedly evolve vertical transmission, Spiroplasma may be uniquely equipped to form intimate, defensive associations to combat extracellular parasites. Along with insights into defensive mechanisms, recent significant advances have been made in male-killing - a phenotype with interesting evolutionary ties to defense. Finally, we look forward to an exciting decade using the genetic tools of Drosophila, and the rapidly-advancing tractability of Spiroplasma itself, to better understand mechanisms and evolution in defensive symbiosis.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Fungi; Nematoda; Saporins; Spiroplasma; Symbiosis; Wasps
PubMed: 31113629
DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2018.10.004 -
Arthropod Structure & Development Jan 2019
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Body Size
PubMed: 30782321
DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2019.01.005 -
Learning & Behavior Sep 2020Effective communication is essential in animal life to allow fundamental behavioral processes and survival. Communicating by surface-borne vibrations is likely the most... (Review)
Review
Effective communication is essential in animal life to allow fundamental behavioral processes and survival. Communicating by surface-borne vibrations is likely the most ancient mode of getting and exchanging information in both invertebrates and vertebrates. In this review, we concentrate on the use of vibrational communication in arthropods as a form of intraspecific and interspecific signaling, with a focus on the newest discoveries from our research group in terrestrial isopods (Crustacea: Isopoda: Oniscidea), a taxon never investigated before in this context. After getting little attention in the past, biotremology is now an emerging field of study in animal communication, and it is receiving increased interest from the scientific community dealing with these behavioral processes. In what follows, we illustrate the general principles and mechanisms on which biotremology is based, using definitions, examples, and insights from the literature in arthropods. Vibrational communication in arthropods has mainly been studied in insects and arachnids. For these taxa, much evidence of its use as a source of information from the surrounding environment exists, as well as its involvement in many behavioral roles, such as courtship and mating, conspecific recognition, competition, foraging, parental care, and danger perception. Recently, and for the first time, communication through surface-borne waves has been studied in terrestrial isopods, using a common Mediterranean species of the Armadillidae family as a pilot species, Armadillo officinalis Duméril, 1816. Mainly, for this species, we describe typical behavioral processes, such as turn alternation, aggregation, and stridulation, where vibrational communication appears to be involved.
Topics: Animal Communication; Animals; Arthropods; Insecta; Isopoda; Vibration
PubMed: 32632754
DOI: 10.3758/s13420-020-00428-3 -
Arthropod Structure & Development Jan 2019Arachnids and their relatives (Chelicerata) range in body length from tens of centimetres in horseshoe crabs down to little more than 80-200 μm in several groups of... (Review)
Review
Arachnids and their relatives (Chelicerata) range in body length from tens of centimetres in horseshoe crabs down to little more than 80-200 μm in several groups of mites. Spiders (Araneae) show the widest range within a given Bauplan - the largest species being ca. 270 times longer than the smallest - making them excellent models to investigate scaling effects. The two mite clades (Parasitiformes and Acariformes) are the main specialists in being small. Miniaturisation, and its consequences, is reviewed for both fossil and extant chelicerates. Morphological changes potentially related to miniaturisation, or adapting to the ecological niches that small size allows, include reduction in the length and number of legs, loss of prosomal arteries (and eventually also the heart), replacement of book lungs by tracheae, or even loss of all respiratory organs. There may also be evolutionary novelties, such as the acquisition of structures by which some mites attach themselves to larger hosts. The observed character distributions suggest a fairly fundamental division between larger pulmonate (lung-bearing) arachnids and smaller, non-pulmonate, groups which could reflect a phylogenetic dichotomy. However, it is worth noting that lineages of tiny spiders were originally fully pulmonate, but have acquired some typically non-pulmonate features, while camel spiders (Soli-fugae) can be large but have a Bauplan suggestive of smaller, non-pulmonate, ancestors.
Topics: Animals; Arachnida; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Body Size
PubMed: 30367936
DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2018.10.002 -
Arthropod Structure & Development Jan 2019
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Editorial Policies; Periodicals as Topic
PubMed: 30782320
DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2019.01.006 -
Arthropod Structure & Development Jan 2018
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Developmental Biology; Editorial Policies; Entomology; Periodicals as Topic
PubMed: 29412872
DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2018.01.004 -
Sub-cellular Biochemistry 2020The copper-containing hemocyanins are proteins responsible for the binding, transportation and storage of dioxygen within the blood (hemolymph) of many invertebrates.... (Review)
Review
The copper-containing hemocyanins are proteins responsible for the binding, transportation and storage of dioxygen within the blood (hemolymph) of many invertebrates. Several additional functions have been attributed to both arthropod and molluscan hemocyanins, including (but not limited to) enzymatic activity (namely phenoloxidase), hormone transport, homeostasis (ecdysis) and hemostasis (clot formation). An important secondary function of hemocyanin involves aspects of innate immunity-such as acting as a precursor of broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptides and microbial/viral agglutination. In this chapter, we present the reader with an up-to-date synthesis of the known functions of hemocyanins and the structural features that facilitate such activities.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Hemocyanins; Hemolymph; Immunity, Innate; Monophenol Monooxygenase
PubMed: 32189302
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-41769-7_9 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Nov 2022Cambrian fossils reveal ancestry of the segmented brain in arthropods.
Cambrian fossils reveal ancestry of the segmented brain in arthropods.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; Brain; Fossils
PubMed: 36423278
DOI: 10.1126/science.add7372 -
Current Biology : CB Jul 2018Ortega-Hernández et al. introduce fuxianhuiids, Cambrian arthropods that are important for our understaindg how the largest animal phylum evolved.
Ortega-Hernández et al. introduce fuxianhuiids, Cambrian arthropods that are important for our understaindg how the largest animal phylum evolved.
Topics: Animals; Arthropods; Biological Evolution; China; Fossils; Life History Traits; Phylogeny
PubMed: 29990450
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.04.042