Morphological studies on sense organs of the adult female of the true spider Cheiracanthium isiacum (Araneae: Cheiracanthiidae) at Assiut Governorate, Egypt.

Document Type : Novel Research Articles

Author

Zoology, Faculty of Science, Assiut University

Abstract

All spiders having different types of hairs. The spider's body hair and spines are hollow and highly sensitive to touch and to vibrations. Adult female of Cheiracanthium isiacum has different types of sensory organs, like slit sensilla (mechanoreceptors) that detects cuticular strains and vibrations, flexible hair sensilla (trichobothria) that detects air movements, chemosensitive hairs, trichoid sensilla and different types of setae. Adult females have dense hair pads on the ventral side of their distal end of tarsi on the walking legs. These dense hairs are called scopulate hairs. The fine structural analysis of these scopulate hairs revealed that they lack the brush-like structure and they have tiny “end feet” that is typical for such adhesive hairs. Contact chemoreceptors occur on all parts of the body particularly concentrated on the distal segments of walking legs. The tactile taste hairs are found on the mouth, chelicerae and spinnerets may act as chemoreceptors. The aim of the present study is to illustrate the morphology of different sensory organs on all parts of the body of the spider Cheiracanthium isiacum. Using light and scanning electron microscopy. The study revealed the presence of different sensillae including trichodea, slit sense organ, tactile hairs, trichobothria and different types of setae.

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