Arachnids

During May through July 2012 many habitats in Mergasor locality were investigated for jumping spiders. Three species
and three genera were recorded belonging to the family Salticidae which are Philaeus chrysops, Plexippus paykulli and Saitis leighii. Philaeus chrysops had height population in this area but further investigations are needed to clarify the distribution of other species of Salticidae in this region.

VIDEO LINK = https://youtu.be/F2G9fW0TMrg  Чудо Природы Под Микроскопом: РАССКАЗ-ИСТОРИЯ про Хоботок-Пилу у Собачьего Клеща  Ixodes ricinus. Клещ Под Микроскопом: История про Иксодовых Клещей и Собачьего Клеща  Ixodes ricinus.  19.03.2015 Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Энтомолог, кандидат биологических наук  Виктор Фурсов рассказывает о иксодовых клещах, о их строении, их жизненном цикле развития и их вреде как переносчиков ряда заболеваний - боррелиоза (болезни Лайма), клещевого энцефалита, Ку-лихорадки, туляремии, геморрагической лихорадки и др.
Тип Членистоногие Arthropoda,    Класс Arachnida,  Подкласс Acari,  Отряд Parasitiformes, Подотряд  Ixodida,  Семейство  Ixodidae Murray Ticks are small arachnids in the order Parasitiformes. Along with mites, they constitute the subclass Acarina.

Fire is an important disturbance that can impact biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Although fire impacts have been well studied in plants and some animals, the effects of fire on litter-dwelling arthropods remain poorly documented. I investigated the effect of time-since-burn on litter-dwelling arthropods in a Florida scrub ecosystem. I measured total arthropod richness and diversity as well as arachnid detritivore and predator abundance along a time-since-burn chronosequence. Arthropod richness and diversity and arachnid abundance significantly increased within 8 years post-burn. Arthropod richness and diversity and arachnid abundance did not differ between 8 and 89 years since last burn. These results demonstrate that litter-dwelling arthropods can quickly re-establish their community composition within 8 years after a burn, which may have important consequences for litter decomposition and nutrient cycling rates over successional time.

There is a natural range of variation in sperm morphology inside males. This variation may be adaptive or a result of poor quality control of sperm production. Sperm aggregates can also show different morphologies inside ejaculates. Preliminary analyses in scorpions suggest the existence of a sperm package morphological variation. It is unclear if this is a true polymorphism. The main purpose of this analysis is to evaluate polymorphism in sperm packages of scorpions. Some species from the order showed width variation or spatial variation that was associated to the number of folds. Some ejaculates of Bothriurus bonariensis and Brachistosternus ferrugineus males showed width dimorphism, but may be related to the natural variation of sperm width. However, sperm packages in B. ferrugineus showed lower counts of spermatozoa and the apparition of these sperm packages seemed to increase at the beginning of the reproductive season in one of the species. A marked width dimorphism of sperm packages appeared inside ejaculates of Caraboctonus keyserlingi. The adaptive significance of sperm package differences is not well understood. Differences in width may be a consequence of sperm package production errors, resulting in sperm packages with fewer spermatozoa. Sperm package polymorphism in C. keyserlingi may be linked to sperm competition risk and may be associated to other characters and strategies. Alternative hypotheses to the pattern found are further analyzed and discussed within a sexual selection framework.

Specific dynamic action (SDA) is the cumulative energy expended on meal ingestion, digestion, and assimilation.  In this study, we examined the postfeeding metabolic response of the Chilean rose hair tarantula to determine whether they experience an observable SDA due to their largely liquid diet.  In response to two meal sizes (1.7% and 6.4% of body mass), tarantulas experienced a very characteristic rapid increase in gas exchange rates (oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production) that peaked within six hours after feeding.  Following the peak, gas exchange rates decreased at much slower rate before reaching prefeeding levels at 24-36 hours after feeding.  Although expected to exhibit a more modest SDA response, tarantulas experienced an SDA similar to that of other invertebrates.  As predicted, tarantulas that ingested the larger meal (6.4% of body mass) experienced a larger and longer metabolic response which resulted in a significantly greater SDA when compared to those individuals that ingested the smaller meal (1.7% of body mass).

Se analizó la variación espacial de las comunidades de arañas del suelo y sotobosque asociadas a tres localidades con bosque mesófilo de montaña (BMM) de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas. Los resultados demuestran una marcada segregación entre los diferentes estratos y localidades. El estrato del suelo fue más heterogéneo que el del sotobosque, contrario a lo reportado en otros hábitats templados y tropicales. Se observó un efecto de interacción significativo entre los estratos y las localidades, sugiriendo un posible efecto de escala-dependencia, similar a lo reportado en otros hábitats. Las variables incluidas en nuestro estudio explicaron de manera moderada la totalidad de la variación observada; por lo que, incluir un mayor número de variables en estudios futuros podría ayudar a dilucidar mejor la dinámica espacial de las comunidades. Incrementar el conocimiento ecológico de organismos clave (como las arañas) en hábitats de gran importancia ecológica (como el BMM) podría ser útil en la elaboración de futuros planes para su manejo y conservación.

Digestive carbohydrases are present in many species of hematophagous Arthropoda, including ticks. In this work, Amblyomma cajennense (Ixodidae) midgut digestive carbohydrases were tracked with different substrates, resulting in the identification of a chitinase and an N-acetyl-b-glucosaminidase and the first description of a digestive a-L-fucosidase in ticks. a-L-fucosidases are involved in various physiological processes, and digestive a-L-fucosidases have been shown to be present in other types of organisms. Amblyomma cajennense a-L-fucosidase activity was isolated using acidic and salting-out precipitations and chromatographic steps in hydrophobic and cation-exchange columns. The specificity of the isolated activity as an a-L-fucosidase was confirmed by the hydrolysis of 4-methylumbelliferyl a-L-fucopyrano-side and the natural substrate fucoidan and the inhibition by fucose and deoxyfuconojirimycin. The isolated activity of a-L-fucosidase forms oligomers with molecular mass of 140 kDa or 150 kDa as determined by gel filtration and non-reducing SDS–PAGE, respectively. This particular fucosidase has an optimum pH of 5.3, is stable even at high temperatures (stable for at least 2 h at 50 °C), has a K m of 45 lM to the substrate 4-methylumbelliferyl a-L-fucopyranoside and IC 50% of 327 lM to fucose and 42 pM to deoxyfuconojirimycin. The presence of digestive fucosidases in hematophagous Arthropoda may be related to defence mechanisms against host–parasite interactions.

Arthropods account for more than 65% of global species and 85% of animal species. On a temperate grassland, arthropods hold a huge biomass (1,000kg/ha), seconded to plant (20,000kg/ha) and microorganisms (7,000kg/ha) but much higher than mammals (1.2kg/ha), birds (0.3kg/ha), and nemantodes (120kg/ha). Arthropods play the role of both pests and beneficial organisms. Some arthropods are important crop pests but others are natural enemies. Some arthropods are important health pests but many crustaceans are important food sources of humankinds. Arthropods govern the structures and functions of natural ecosystems, but are always ignored by researchers. On the global scale, the surveys of mammals, birds and vascular plants were relatively perfect because they were economically important and easily surveyed. However, arthropods, despite their ecological and economical importance, have not yet been fully surveyed and recorded due to their difficulties to be sampled. The research on arthropods must be further promoted. The journal, Arthropods, is inaugurated to provide a public and appropriate platform for the publication of studies and reports on arthropods.

ARTHROPODS (ISSN 2224-4255) is an international journal devoted to the publication of articles on various aspects of arthropods, e.g., ecology, biogeography, systematics, biodiversity (species diversity, genetic diversity, et al.), conservation, control, etc. The journal provides a forum for examining the importance of arthropods in biosphere (both terrestrial and marine ecosystems) and human life in such fields as agriculture, forestry, fishery, environmental management and human health. The scope of Arthropods is wide and embraces all arthropods-insects, arachnids, crustaceans, centipedes, millipedes, and other arthropods. Articles/short communications on new taxa (species, genus, families, orders, etc.) and new records of arthropods are particularly welcome.

Authors can submit their works to the email box of this journal, arthropods@iaees.org. All manuscripts submitted to this journal must be previously unpublished and may not be considered for publication elsewhere at any time during review period of this journal. Authors are asked to read Author Guidelines before submitting manuscripts.

In addition to free submissions from authors around the world, special issues are also accepted. The organizer of a special issue can collect submissions (yielded from a research project, a research group, etc.) on a specific research topic, or submissions of a scientific conference for publication of special issue.

Arthropods 
ISSN 2224-4255
URL: http://www.iaees.org/publications/journals/arthropods/online-version.asp
RSS feed: http://www.iaees.org/publications/journals/arthropods/rss.xml
E-mail: arthropods@iaees.org
Editor-in-Chief: WenJun Zhang