Corresponding author: Peter Michalik (
Academic editor: Jeremy Miller
The male of the austrochilid spider
The family
We collected a male of
Habitat (
For the micro-CT analyses of the male palp, the sample was dehydrated in graded ethanol and stained with a 1% iodine solution for 12 hours. After washing in pure ethanol, the sample was scanned in ethanol with an Xradia MicroXCT-200 X-ray imaging system (Carl Zeiss X-ray Microscopy Inc., Pleasanton, USA) at 40 kV and 8 W using phase contrast (4.0 scintillator-objective lens unit, 15 s exposure time, 4.15 µm pixel size). The obtained data were processed using the 3D analysis software AMIRA v. 5.4.2 (Visage Imaging, Berlin, Germany). Virtual reconstruction of the spermophore was performed by delineation in each section (segmentation) and a smooth surface was computed using the surface editor. The image stack is stored in MorphDBase under creative commons attribution (CC-BY; ID: P_Michalik_20130729-M-4.1;
anterior lateral eye
anterior median eye
basal hematodocha
cymbium
chelicera
embolus
hook of subtegulum
muscle 29
muscle 30
median apophysis
median hematodocha
median ocular quadrangle
posterior lateral eye
posterior median eye
process of subtegulum
spermophor
subtegulum
tegulum
tendon of muscle 29
tendon of muscle 30
Zoologisches Institut und Museum Greifswald (Germany)
CHILE: Region de Los Lagos (X), Chiloé province, Isla de Chiloé, Lago Huillinco, N margin, 4.6 km (air) ESE Cucao,
Similar to
Left male palp of
Surface model of the spermophor superimposed on the volume rendering of the male palp. Video available for download in full resolution from
I | II | III | IV | Palp | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Femur | 8.82 | 7.67 | 5.95 | 7.3 | 2.99 |
Patella | 2.02 | 1.83 | 1.54 | 1.69 | 0.92 |
Tibia | 9.91 | 7.55 | 4.63 | missing | 1.43 |
Metatarsus | 9.40 | 7.60 | 5.39 | missing | - |
Tarsus | 3.68 | 3.04 | 2.17 | missing | 3.27 |
|
33.84 | 27.71 | 19.69 | 8.62 |
The webs of
Based on the micro-CT data and manual segmentation of the spermophor we confirm the interpretation of the male palp sclerites especially with regard to the position of the embolus given by
Series of virtual cross sections through the left male palp of
As shown here micro-CT data can be used for precise and transparent descriptions (for details on the method and data handling see
We thank Christian Wirkner and Katharina Huckstorf (University Rostock, Germany) as well as Matias Izquierdo (MACN, Buenos Aires, Argentina) for sharing a fantastic time in the field. We thank Elisabeth Lipke (University Greifswald, Germany) for her help with the 3D data processing and Bernhard Huber (ZMFK Bonn, Germany) for helpful comments on the manuscript. This study was funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG Mi 1255/5-1), CONICET (PIP 112-200801-03209), ANPCyT (FONCyT, PICT-2007-01393) and the University of Greifswald (Germany). The material was collected under CONAF permit 027/2011.