Need solifugid embryos for evolutionary devolopmental research

[moosepuggle]

Hello,

I am a post-doctoral researcher in molecular biology at UC Berkeley. I'm interested in determining the origins and relationships of things that stick out of arthropod bodies, like insect wings, insect abdominal gills, and Solifugid malleoli. I'd like to do some gene expression analyses in Solpugid embryos, especially to figure out what those weird malleoli are, and how they evolved.

I was wondering if anyone knows where I could find Solpugid embryos? From reading some of these forums, mated females appear to retain sperm for multiple clutches, so perhaps I could try to catch females soon after the breeding season? It sounds like the females lay in late summer, and the embryos take about 2 months to hatch? Does anyone know approximately how big the embryos are (bigger or smaller than an uncooked grain of rice)?

Any help would be much appreciated! If I manage to get some embryos, and my gene expression experiments work, I can post whatever publication I get out of it here if anyone is interested

Thank you so much!
Dr. Moosepuggle

 

[schmiggle]

Some people have bred solifugae in captivity, so depending on how much work you want to put in you might try that. Be aware that it's quite difficult if you decide to go down that route (you need a large court for the pair to run around in is an aspect I remember).
When you ask how large the embryos are, at what stage are you talking about? I think first-instar larvae are slightly larger than a grain of rice, for example.

 

[moosepuggle]

Hi Schmiggle,

Thank you so much for your response!

Provided I find a clutch of embryos at the right stage, I'll only need one clutch, since they apparently lay 50-200 embryos? So, I'm hoping I don't really need to have a breeding set up. That said, it also appears to be difficult to get embryos to hatch, too.

As for stage, I need embryos before they hatch into larvae, probably about 2-6 weeks after egg laying. I work with amphipod crustacean embryos (and other arthropod embryos, I have some horseshoe crab and mantis shrimp embryos!). For expression studies (antibody stains, RNA in situ hybridization), you have to get the embryos before they start putting cuticle on, otherwise there's too much background/noise, and the antibodies have trouble penetrating the cuticle. When they lay down cuticle depends on the group, my amphipod lays it down pretty late, so I can study gene expression for most of embryogenesis, but millipedes put on cuticle quite early, before the leg joints even form. Spiders and horseshoe crabs are like amphipods, because people have published antibody stains and in situs where you can make out and count the leg joints. In my research, I need to be able to see the embryonic leg joints as they form and align that to gene expression patterns, like in the attached picture.

Part of the reason I need solpugid embryos is that they appear to be pretty large. I have to hand dissect all of my embryos, using sharpened tungsten wire needles, so if the embryos are smaller than a piece of sand, they start getting VERY difficult to dissect. Ticks and mites also have eight leg segments, which is what I need, but the embryos are so tiny, I don't think I could dissect them. And they're so tiny, it's difficult to even make out the leg segment joints!

One way I can think of that this might work is if someone on this forum who knows how to hatch embryos wanted to help me by collecting a female, raising the embryos to 2 - 6 weeks after egg laying, then throwing them in some 70:30 ethanolhosphate buffered saline. I'm happy to send these reagents, pay for the embryos, and acknowledge them in the paper (unfortunately, I can't make them an author, since there are rules about how much work you have to do to be considered an author). And if this works, and the results show what I think they will, i'm pretty sure this will be a Nature paper, one of the top two science journals in the world! If not, well, I guess I'll start preparing myself for a lot of frustration and troubleshooting, lol

 

[KevinsWither]

Some people have bred solifugae in captivity, so depending on how much work you want to put in you might try that. Be aware that it's quite difficult if you decide to go down that route (you need a large court for the pair to run around in is an aspect I remember).
When you ask how large the embryos are, at what stage are you talking about? I think first-instar larvae are slightly larger than a grain of rice, for example.

How have they bred/reared solifugae in captivity?

 

[schmiggle]

How have they bred/reared solifugae in captivity?

I don't actually know most of the details. It involves using a large court for the male to run after the female along her pheromone trail, and if she's receptive she goes catatonic while he inseminates her. If she isn't receptive she immediately turns around and kills him. You need a large court or she'll definitely kill him. I don't know how to tell if the female is receptive, or if there is a way, and I don't know how to convince her to lay her eggs.

 

[moosepuggle]

It sounds like mated females can lay several clutches, so I'm guessing they retain sperm. That's a common thing in arthropods (fruit flies for example). So it may not be necessary (for my purpose at least!) to have a male and female, with conditions suitable for courtship. Someone said he had a female lay several clutches over a few months, so it might be easier to just capture a (hopefully mated) female in mid to late breeding season, and just worry about creating the right conditions for her to lay in, which should also be the right conditions for the embryos to develop in. Someone also said he tried to keep the environment semi moist but the embryos semi dry, and after a couple months, half of his embryos hatched.

But I'm sure there's a lot more to raising solifugid embryos than just that!

 

[schmiggle]

My main concern with catching solifugae is that it's not the easiest thing to find a gravid female, particularly if you don't know where to look. If you do decide to go that route, be sure to check in advance what the preferred habitat of your target species is (not just desert--sandy desert, rocky desert, shrubby desert, etc.), exactly which months they are active (some species are only active for one or two, and most are inactive most of the year), and whether they are diurnal or nocturnal. This might be all old hat to you, in which case I apologize. Your other problem will be being able to tell that what you've caught is a gravid female, which is tricky if you don't necessarily know what to look for. Generally, of course, larger individuals are female, and those with fatter abdomens are gravid. However, the specific search image will depend on the species.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

This sounds super interesting. Please post your results if you the experiment is successful!

 

[JHP656]

I found this female solpugid a few weeks ago. Eggs were not really visible at the time. Slowly they have become more visible. Does it look like she will lay them soon?

 

[Smokehound714]

Hello,

I am a post-doctoral researcher in molecular biology at UC Berkeley. I'm interested in determining the origins and relationships of things that stick out of arthropod bodies, like insect wings, insect abdominal gills, and Solifugid malleoli. I'd like to do some gene expression analyses in Solpugid embryos, especially to figure out what those weird malleoli are, and how they evolved.

I was wondering if anyone knows where I could find Solpugid embryos? From reading some of these forums, mated females appear to retain sperm for multiple clutches, so perhaps I could try to catch females soon after the breeding season? It sounds like the females lay in late summer, and the embryos take about 2 months to hatch? Does anyone know approximately how big the embryos are (bigger or smaller than an uncooked grain of rice)?

Any help would be much appreciated! If I manage to get some embryos, and my gene expression experiments work, I can post whatever publication I get out of it here if anyone is interested

Thank you so much!
Dr. Moosepuggle

it really depends on the genus and species. some have huge eggs like eremocosta or eremorhax and especially galeodes.

 

[Smokehound714]

I found this female solpugid a few weeks ago. Eggs were not really visible at the time. Slowly they have become more visible. Does it look like she will lay them soon?

yes!

 

[JHP656]

yes!

Here are a few more pictures to help identify the species

 

[JHP656]

Here are a few more pictures to help identify the species

I have an eremobates pallipus female who has laid two batches of eggs. They made be too small but I figured I’d show pictures just in case.

 

[Ilich]

I have an eremobates pallipus female who has laid two batches of eggs. They made be too small but I figured I’d show pictures just in case.

Looks kind of like shes a part Ammotrechidae family though I couldn't tell you what sub-family.