Central nervous system and web building in spiders

WAfIT, INST¡]'I-I'I"E

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LIBRARY CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AND ^I/,/EB BUILDING IN ^SPIDERS

David Chr"istcPher ^Lake B.Sc. (Hons) , ^DÍP.Ed.

Department of ^EntomclogY

December ¹ 983

fulfilmenb for ^the Thi-s thesis is

requirement,s of Science aL ^the

submitted ^as the ^degree Universitlr

partÍaJ- of Master of AdeIaide.

of Agricultunal

3 ^Summary 4 Dec Iaration

5 Acknowledgements

6 Introduction

8 Material-s & Methods Results

I'leb Sbruc ture

12 14 14 15 16 17 1B 1g

21

24 25 28 30 32 34 37

40 42 44

Introduction Phi^I ononella

Cyrtophora Neohila

Phonogna t ^{h a} ArEiope Tetragnatha CeÌaenia Central ^{Nervous SYstem}

Intnoduction 0ptic ^Masses

Philoponella

Cyrtophora

Nephi Ia

Phon ogna t ha

Celaenia Angiope TeLraEnatha

Central SupraoesophageaJ- Structures Philop^{one I l-a}

Cyrtophora Nephila

2

46 48 50 52

54 55 57 59 60 62 63

74 81

83 85 8T 91

95 98 65 6B 71

Phonognatha Celaenia Afgiæe

Tetragnatha Central Body

PhiloponelIa Cyrtophora

trphila

Phonognathq Celaenia Argiope Tetragnatha

Summary of ^Resul-ts Optic masses

Central- supraoesophageaì- structures Central body

Discussion

t'lebs

Brain Stability

Simp1e Supraoesophageal Structure Derived Supraoesophageal Strucfure Taxonomic Significance

"BehaviouraJ- Significance

Appendix 1 (Staining TechnÍques) Appendi-x 2

Figures

Tabl-es

Photographic Pl-ates BibJ.iography

141

Using Palmgren silver staining ' and other histologicaL methods, the supraoesophageaJ- association areas in ^one Ul'oborÍd and six Araneid spider genera ^are investigated and ^compared '

The Araneid genera studied share a ^{common, Senepal-} plan which differs from that found by other authorrs in non-Araneid genera. This general plan shows

sequential- modifications from simple to derived Ananeidae. The siinple Aratleid supnaoesophageal gangL ion is charactenised by a Iarge and fibrcus centralbody,welldevelopedposteriorfibretractsand

poorly rlevetoped Iateral optic ^masses ' The ¿ç¡f ^ried AraneidSupraoesophagealganglionischanacterisedbya

smaller, ^more homogenous central- ^body and a prominent' wel-l- developed r anterion nexus of associaLion ^{ar3as '} In particular the lateral optic masses and ^corpora pedunculata, which are interconn3cted to ^the suboesophageal ganglion, ^show strong development'

ThedegreeofindividualaSsociationarea

development may be correlated with +'ire relative importance of visual or tactile sensory modalities _' based upon the spiders ^r/'Ieb buitding ^behaviour '

Using the supraoesophageal stnucture as a tool'' the taxonomj-c positions of C"fuetia ^and Tetragnatha withintheAraneidae,andtherelationshipofbhe

cnibell-ate spider ^f amily, ^Ulobor j-dae, io the ^Araneidae _' are ^discussed.

4

This thesis contains no material which ^has been accepted for the ^award of any other ^degree or diploma in any University, and to the best of my knowl-edge ' contains no material ^pre viously publi-shed or writben by another person' ^except where due reference is ^made in the text of the thesis. Material_ in this thesÍs may be ^copied

f or private study without' written p'ermlssion _'

Signed.

I wish to thank t'he following for thein generous helP duning this ^work'

Dr R. Laughl-in (l¡'laite Agricultural Research fnstitute ) and Mr ^D ' Lee ^{( South} Australian ^Museum) for their supervision'

J. ^!'lannan (BarrSmith Library ) ^f or ^her transl-ation of ^{PaPers '}

.State Water LaboraLories for use of ^the photomicroscoPe.

Solomon Islands DePartment of Agriculture

specimens.

MY wife

'

tedious nights

Jane, for her heIP with of phobograPhY.

for Permission to coll-ect

many