Project 4539: P. O. Steinhoff, S. Harzsch, G. Uhl. 2023. Comparative neuroanatomy of the central nervous system in web‐building and cursorial hunting spiders. Journal of Comparative Neurology. epub ahead of print:none yet.
Specimen: Marpissa muscosa (ZIMG/Spider brains:M_21_horizontal)
View: dorsal

Abstract

Spiders (Araneae) include cursorial species that stalk their prey and more stationary species that use webs for prey capture. While many cursorial hunting spiders rely on visual cues, web‐building spiders use vibratory cues (mechanosensation) for prey capture. We predicted that the differences in primary sensory input between the species are mirrored by differences in the morphology/architecture of the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we investigated the CNS anatomy of four spider species, two cursorial hunters Pardosa amentata (Lycosidae) and Marpissa muscosa (Salticidae), and two web‐building hunters Argiope bruennichi (Araneidae) and Parasteatoda tepidariorum (Theridiidae). Their CNS was analyzed using Bodian silver impregnations, immunohistochemistry, and microCT analysis. We found that there are major differences between species in the secondary eye pathway of the brain that pertain to first‐order, second‐order, and higher order brain centers (mushroom bodies [MB]). While P. amentata and M. muscosa have prominent visual neuropils and MB, these are much reduced in the two web‐building species. Argiope bruennichi lacks second‐order visual neuropils but has specialized photoreceptors that project into two distinct visual neuropils, and P. tepidariorum lacks MB, suggesting that motion vision might be absent in this species. Interestingly, the differences in the ventral nerve cord are much less pronounced, but the web‐building spiders have proportionally larger leg neuropils than the cursorial spiders. Our findings suggest that the importance of visual information is much reduced in web‐building spiders, compared to cursorial spiders, while processing of mechanosensory information requires the same major circuits in both web‐building and cursorial hunting spiders.


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Article DOI: 10.1002/cne.25554

Project DOI: 10.7934/P4539, http://dx.doi.org/10.7934/P4539
This project contains
  • 19 Media
  • 11 Documents
  • 4 Taxa
  • 10 Specimens
Total size of project's media files: 569.1M

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MorphoBank Project 4539
  • Creation Date:
    24 January 2023
  • Publication Date:
    03 November 2023
  • Media downloads: 4

    Authors' Institutions

    • University of Greifswald



    Members

    member name taxa specimens media
    Philip Steinhoff
    Project Administrator
    41019


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    Project downloads

    type number of downloads Individual items downloaded (where applicable)
    Total downloads from project22
    Document downloads10CNS volumes (2 downloads); 3D PDF Argiope bruennichi horizontal (8 downloads);
    Project downloads8
    Media downloads4M851544 (1 download); M896944 (1 download); M851543 (1 download); M895009 (1 download);