Amblypigi Id and help

[Erica Clemente]

Good morning to all. There is really so little sources of information on these that is not either so scientific I need to look up every other word or seems dreadfully insufficient. I got one at Petco the other day. In a 10 gallon on its side with a door and ventilation. vertical and diagonally placed cork and plants to the top and a foam background (that I tossed to the side with my T’s finally used!) a few inches of damp substrate.

So for care… water dish? Gauging cricket size ? ID? Any feed back would be appreciated

 

[ThemantismanofPA]

some damon sp, most likely medius. generally no water dish is needed, and it looks like its close to adulthood, so large crickets are fine. Humid, but not too humid. I keep springtail with mine because theyre super messy eaters and high humidity causes mold. Dont worry, mold isnt likely to kill them

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

^^^ What they said. Setup looks appropriate, though all that extra decor up top might just end up giving prey a place to hide. Should be fine though. Keep that substrate moist and you should be good. Amblypygi will take pretty big prey so anything bigger than a baby Damon can handle large crickets easily.

This animal is very likely wild caught, so assume it's super stressed and needs extra moisture and plenty of quiet time.

 

[Edan bandoot]

some damon sp, most likely medius. generally no water dish is needed, and it looks like its close to adulthood, so large crickets are fine. Humid, but not too humid. I keep springtail with mine because theyre super messy eaters and high humidity causes mold. Dont worry, mold isnt likely to kill them

Some species of amblypygi even have symbiotic relationships with mold on their exoskeletons. Unfortunately the study proving this is behind a paywall now :/

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Some species of amblypygi even have symbiotic relationships with mold on their exoskeletons. Unfortunately the study proving this is behind a paywall now :/

DO you happen to have the title, the author list, or any other info that might help track this down? My university may have access to the journal.

 

[Edan bandoot]

DO you happen to have the title, the author list, or any other info that might help track this down? My university may have access to the journal.

Amblypygid-fungal interactions: The whip spider exoskeleton as a substrate for fungal growth

Fungi and arthropods represent some of the most diverse organisms on our planet, yet the ecological relationships between them remain largely unknown.…

www.sciencedirect.com

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Amblypygid-fungal interactions: The whip spider exoskeleton as a substrate for fungal growth

Fungi and arthropods represent some of the most diverse organisms on our planet, yet the ecological relationships between them remain largely unknown.…

www.sciencedirect.com

Thank you! Turns out I do in fact have access!

Looks like fungal growth is widespread - they found a variety of fungal species growing on all of the amblypygi they examined. There appeared to be zero evidence of any of the fungi being able to cause infections in the amblypygi, even in the cases of fungal species that are known to be lethal to spiders and various insects. The fungal hyphae also didn't penetrate the exoskeleton in any of the specimens they examined, which is one of the major indicators of a parasitic or entomopathic fungus. They hypothesize that the fungus may actually play a protective role - a lot of the fungus species they found produce antimicrobial secretions.

 

[Banshee05]

glad to see that our paper find interest on arachnoboard

 

[Edan bandoot]

glad to see that our paper find interest on arachnoboard

Big fan, love your pics

 

[ThemantismanofPA]

while i dont support it, the website scihub offers pirated scientific papers

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

while i dont support it, the website scihub offers pirated scientific papers

Most authors are also happy to email PDFs of their papers to anyone who asks - and the corresponding author's email address is always published.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

glad to see that our paper find interest on arachnoboard

Aha! Guess I shouldn't be surprised at least one of the authors would be here It's a super interesting paper!

 

[Banshee05]

also very interesting in this regard are these two papers:

The water-repellent cerotegument of whip-spiders (Arachnida: Amblypygi) | Request PDF

Request PDF | The water-repellent cerotegument of whip-spiders (Arachnida: Amblypygi) | The cuticle of arthropods is usually composed of layers of a chitin-protein-microcomposite, a proteinacous epicuticle and a thin lipid coating.... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

The water-repellent cerotegument of whip-spiders (Arachnida: Amblypygi)

The cuticle of arthropods is usually composed of layers of a chitin-protein-microcomposite, a proteinaceous epicuticle and a thin lipid coating. Howev…

www.sciencedirect.com

(PDF) Whip spiders (Amblypygi) become water-repellent by a colloidal secretion that self-assembles into hierarchical microstructures

PDF | Background Among both plants and arthropods, super-hydrophobic surfaces have evolved that enable self-cleaning, locomotion on water surfaces, or... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Whip spiders (Amblypygi) become water-repellent by a colloidal secretion that self-assembles into hierarchical microstructures - Zoological Letters

Background Among both plants and arthropods, super-hydrophobic surfaces have evolved that enable self-cleaning, locomotion on water surfaces, or plastron respiration. Super-hydrophobicity is achieved by a combination of non-polar substances and complex micro- and nano-structures, usually...

zoologicalletters.biomedcentral.com

two more papers dealing with this cerotogument aspects will follow soon.

 

[Banshee05]

The next paper dealing with this special feature in neglected arachnid orders will be soon published:

Fine structure of the epicuticular secretion coat and associated glands of Pedipalpi and Palpigradi (Arachnida)

Live habitus (above) and scanning electron micrographs (SEM, below) of carapace of Amblypygi, Thelyphonida, Schizomida and Palpigradi, from left to right. SEM images illustrate hierarchical microstru...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Seiter, M., Schwaha, T., Ferreira, R.L., Prendini, L., Wolff, J.O. 2021. Fine structure of the epicuticular secretion coat and associated glands of Pedipalpi and Palpigradi (Arachnida). Journal of Morphology. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.21360