• Animal cells and systems
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.85-91
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• 2006

The lynx spiders are free wandering spiders with long spines on their legs. They do not build web, but hunt small insects on plants. In spite of the facts that the wandering spiders do not produce webs for prey-catching, they also have silk apparatuses even though the functions are not fully defined. This paper describes the microstructural organization of the silk-spinning nozzles and its silk glands of the lynx spider, Oxyopes licenti, revealed by the field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). The silkspinning nozzles of this spider were identified as three groups: ampullate, pyriform and aciniform glands. Each group of silk gland feed silk into one of the three pairs of spinnerets. Two pairs of major ampullate glands send secretory ductules to the anterior spinnerets, and another two pair of minor ampullate glands supply the middle spinnerets. In addition, the pyriform glands feed silk into the anterior spinnerets (25-30 pairs in females and 24-40 pairs in males), and the aciniform glands send ductules to the middle (9-12 pairs in females and 7-11 pairs in males) and the posterior spinnerets (16-20 pairs in females and 16-17 pairs in males). Among these, the ampullate one is the most predominate gland in both sexes. However the flagelliform and the aggregate glands which had the functions of cocoon production or adhesive thread production in other webbuilding spiders were not observed at both sexes of this spider.