Splendid coloration of the peacock spider
            <i>Maratus splendens</i>

Stavenga, Doekele G.; Otto, Jürgen C.; Wilts, Bodo D.

doi:10.1098/rsif.2016.0437

Cited by 27 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ommochrome Raman signals are comparably lower, but still detectable if they are present on their own, but as previously mentioned, they will be overshadowed if they co-exist with melanins and/or carotenoids. Kynurenine and 3OH-kynurenine (intermediates in the tryptophan metabolic pathway, and precursors for ommochrome synthesis; Riou and Christides, 2010) were reported to cause the yellow coloration in the colour-changing crab spider Misumena vatia (Insausti and Casas, 2008), and were recently suggested to be present in the yellow scales of M. splendens (Stavenga et al, 2016). Kynurenine and 3OH-kynurenine have even fewer C-C and C-H bonds than ommochromes (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pigmentary colours are independent of viewing angle (non-iridescent), while structural colours are usually angle dependent (iridescent). The nanomorphology of structural colours has been investigated recently for some spiders (Foelix et al, 2013;Hsiung et al, 2015b;Ingram et al, 2011;Land et al, 2007;Simonis et al, 2013;Stavenga et al, 2016). However, our knowledge of spider pigment biochemistry has remained stagnant for almost 30 years (Holl, 1987, but see Hsiung et al, 2015a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Hsiung

Justyn

Blackledge

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Elucidating the mechanisms of colour production in organisms is important for understanding how selection acts upon a variety of behaviours. Spiders provide many spectacular examples of colours used in courtship, predation, defence and thermoregulation, but are thought to lack many types of pigments common in other animals. Ommochromes, bilins and eumelanin have been identified in spiders, but not carotenoids or melanosomes. Here, we combined optical microscopy, refractive index matching, confocal Raman microspectroscopy and electron microscopy to investigate the basis of several types of colourful patches in spiders. We obtained four major results. First, we show that spiders use carotenoids to produce yellow, suggesting that such colours may be used for conditiondependent courtship signalling. Second, we established the Raman signature spectrum for ommochromes, facilitating the identification of ommochromes in a variety of organisms in the future. Third, we describe a potential new pigmentary-structural colour interaction that is unusual because of the use of long wavelength structural colour in combination with a slightly shorter wavelength pigment in the production of red. Finally, we present the first evidence for the presence of melanosomes in arthropods, using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy, overturning the assumption that melanosomes are a synapomorphy of vertebrates. Our research shows that spiders have a much richer colour production palette than previously thought, and this has implications for colour diversification and function in spiders and other arthropods.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Hsiung

Justyn

Blackledge

et al. 2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…the “bluest” species, Haplopelma lividum ) was chosen to be our reference for blue values. We also obtained Lab values for the jumping spider, Maratus splendens , as a potential blue reference 36 . However, their -b values were less extreme than our chosen reference, Haplopelma lividum .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution Of Colouration And Opsins In Tarantulas

Foley

Saranathan

Piel

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

14Tarantulas paradoxically exhibit a diverse palette of vivid colouration despite their crepuscular 15 to nocturnal habits. The evolutionary origin and maintenance of these colours remains a 16 mystery. In this study, we reconstructed the ancestral states of both blue and green colouration 17 in tarantula setae, and tested how these colours correlate with the presence of stridulation, 18 urtication, and arboreality. Green colouration has likely evolved at least eight times, and blue 19 colouration is likely an ancestral condition that appears to be lost more frequently than gained. 20 While our results indicate that neither colour correlates with the presence of stridulation or 21 urtication, the evolution of green colouration appears to depend upon the presence of 22 arboreality, suggesting that it likely originated for, and functions in, crypsis through substrate 23 matching among leaves. We also constructed a network of opsin homologs across tarantula 24 transcriptomes. Despite their crepuscular tendencies, tarantulas express a full suite of opsin 25 genesa finding that contradicts current consensus that tarantulas have poor colour vision on 26 the basis of low opsin diversity. Overall, our results support the intriguing hypotheses that blue 27 colouration may have ultimately evolved via sexual selection and perhaps proximately be used 28 in mate choice or predation avoidance due to possible sex differences in mate-searching. 29 30 52for each genus in this study, and conducted a series of correlative tests to determine whether 53 any of these traits might inform the function of blue or green colouration in tarantulas. We 54 hypothesize that blue colour should be associated with stridulating / urticating setae, or both, 55 if it either originally evolved or has been exapted (sensu 8 ) for an aposematic function. 56However, we posit that green colouration could aid in crypsis and should show an association 57 with arboreality. 58It is generally thought that tarantulas possess little or no colour vision, with only a weak 59 colour spectrum discrimination 2,9 , with Hsiung, et al. 2 noting that sexual selection as a driving 60 force behind the evolution of tarantula colouration is unlikely. Morehouse et al. 10 argue that 61 tarantulas are colour-blind on the basis of finding a low opsin diversity in Aphonopelma 10 . We 62 investigate whether this claim holds true for other tarantulas by scoring the presence and 63 relative expression of opsins from transcriptomic data in 25 tarantula genera. Opsins are 64 specialized, transmembrane proteins belonging to the superfamily of G-protein coupled 65 receptors that convert light photons to electrochemical signals through a signalling cascade 11 . 66 While the expression of multiple opsin species does not necessarily imply greater colour 67 discrimination, the absence of opsin orthologs could provide support to the hypothesis that 68 tarantulas, broadly speaking, cannot perceive colours. 69 70 RESULTS 71 72 Phylogenetic Signal of Colour Traits 73Our phylogeny con...

show abstract

“…Spider species with larger males than females are rare (e.g., Lycosidae: Aisenberg et al 2007;Pholcidae: Huber et al 2013;Argyroneta aquatica: Schütz and Taborsky 2003). Apart from differences in size and overall body shape, males of many species may carry ornaments, such as intriguing color patterns (Stavenga et al 2016), enlarged legs that are equipped with bristles (Stratton 2005), or even eye-stalks or bizarre protrusions on their prosoma, the front body part (Hormiga 2000;Huber and Nuñeza 2015;Michalik and Uhl 2011;Vanacker et al 2003). In fact, males and females of the same species were described as different taxa due to their extreme differences in size, shape, and color (e.g., Kuntner et al 2012).…”

Section: Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in spiders: from phenotype to genomics

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sexual reproduction is pervasive in animals and has led to the evolution of sexual dimorphism. In most animals, males and females show marked differences in primary and secondary sexual traits. The formation of sex-specific organs and eventually sex-specific behaviors is defined during the development of an organism. Sex determination processes have been extensively studied in a few well-established model organisms. While some key molecular regulators are conserved across animals, the initiation of sex determination is highly diverse. To reveal the mechanisms underlying the development of sexual dimorphism and to identify the evolutionary forces driving the evolution of different sexes, sex determination mechanisms must thus be studied in detail in many different animal species beyond the typical model systems. In this perspective article, we argue that spiders represent an excellent group of animals in which to study sex determination mechanisms. We show that spiders are sexually dimorphic in various morphological, behavioral, and life history traits. The availability of an increasing number of genomic and transcriptomic resources and functional tools provides a great starting point to scrutinize the extensive sexual dimorphism present in spiders on a mechanistic level. We provide an overview of the current knowledge of sex determination in spiders and propose approaches to reveal the molecular and genetic underpinnings of sexual dimorphism in these exciting animals.

show abstract

Splendid coloration of the peacock spider Maratus splendens

Cited by 27 publications

References 30 publications

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

Spiders have rich pigmentary and structural colour palettes

The Evolution Of Colouration And Opsins In Tarantulas

Sex differences in spiders: from phenotype to genomics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About