Interpreting nature’s finest insect silks (Order Embioptera): hydropathy, interrupted repetitive motifs, and fiber-to-film transformation for two neotropical species

Harper, J. René; Sripada, Neeraja; Kher, Pooja; Whittall, Justen B.; Edgerly, Janice S.

doi:10.1016/j.zool.2021.125923

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…For insects, silk is mostly composed of simple amino acid building blocks such as glycine, alanine, and serine. This is true for embiopterans as well (Okada et al, 2008;Collin et al, 2009Collin et al, , 2011Harper et al, 2021). Craig (1997) proposed that such silk proteins are not expensive for an insect to produce.…”

Section: Potential Interactions: Food Resources Predation and Dispersalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nymphs and adults alike spin by stepping with their front legs, while releasing dozens of nanoscale silk fibers from modified hair-like ejectors that clothe the bottom of their front tarsi (Büsse et al, 2019). They execute elaborate spin-steps to fashion tubular galleries and sheets of tissue-like waterproof coverings (Osborn Popp et al, 2016;Stokes et al, 2018;Harper et al, 2021) that protect them from rain and predators (Figures 2A-E). Adult females are neotenous (Figures 1, 2F), flexible, and soft-bodied whilst adult males, usually winged and short-lived, sport wings that fold up so they can run backward and forward inside the silk without getting tangled (Ross, 2000a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Between 1982 and the present day, I along with numerous coauthors have conducted experiments and censused field colonies of A. urichi to determine the extent of their silk coverings and number of occupants (Edgerly, 1987a(Edgerly, ,b, 1994, types of trees that support them (Edgerly, 1987c), environmental correlates that predict their presence and abundance (Shenoy et al, 2020), cost of spinning silk (Edgerly et al, 2006), how they spin (Edgerly et al, 2002(Edgerly et al, , 2020Büsse et al, 2015Büsse et al, , 2019McMillan et al, 2016), as well as attributes of their silk and how it acts as waterproofing (Osborn Popp et al, 2016;Stokes et al, 2018;Shenoy et al, 2020;Harper et al, 2021). Related to the occurrence of non-kin groups, the first question posed for my Ph.D. work, under the guidance of the late George Eickwort of Cornell University, was basic: "what type of social behavior do webspinners exhibit?"…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dispersal Risks and Decisions Shape How Non-kin Groups Form in a Tropical Silk-Sharing Webspinner (Insecta: Embioptera)

Edgerly

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Relying on silk can promote sharing, especially when its presence means life and its absence, quick death. In the case of Embioptera, they construct silken tubes and coverings exposed on tree bark in humid and warm environments or in leaf litter and underground in dry habitats. These coverings protect occupants from rain and natural enemies. Of note, adult females are neotenous, wingless and must walk to disperse. Evidence is pulled together from two sources to explore mechanisms that promote the establishment of non-kin groups that typify the neotropical Antipaluria urichi (Clothodidae): (1) a review of relevant information from 40 years of research to identify potential drivers of the facultative colonial system and (2) experimental and observational data exploring how dispersal contributes to group formation. To determine risks of dispersal and decisions of where to settle, adult females were released into the field and their ability to survive in the face of likely predation was monitored. Additional captured dispersers were released onto bark containing silk galleries; their decision to join the silk or to settle was noted. An experiment tested which attributes of trees attract a disperser: vertical or horizontal boles in one test and small, medium, or large boles in another. While walking, experimentally released adult female dispersers experienced a risk of being killed of approximately 25%. Dispersers orient to large diameter trees and join silk of others if encountered. These results align with observations of natural colonies in that adults and late-stage nymphs join existing colonies of non-kin. Experiments further demonstrated that dispersing females orient to vertical and larger diameter tree-like objects, a behavior that matched the distribution of field colonies. The ultimate reason for the observed dispersion pattern is probably because large trees support more expansive epiphytic algae and lichens (the food for this species), although the impact of food resources on dispersion has not been tested. Finally, further research questions and other webspinner species (including parthenogenetic ones) that warrant a closer look are described. Given that this group of primitively social insects, with approximately 1,000 species known, has remained virtually unstudied, one hope is that this report can encourage more exploration.

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Section: Potential Interactions: Food Resources Predation and Dispersalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dispersal Risks and Decisions Shape How Non-kin Groups Form in a Tropical Silk-Sharing Webspinner (Insecta: Embioptera)

Edgerly

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Twelve more bulky genomes in the Polyneoptera: characterizing the Order Embioptera

Kelly,

Whittall,

Poolprasert

et al. 2024

Insect Systematics and Diversity

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Polyneopteran insects have relatively large genomes compared to holometabolous insects, which appear constrained by a threshold of 2 pg/1C DNA. This threshold may be due to costly complex development and higher energy demands. Genome sizes (GSs) are particularly bulky in various species of Orthoptera, reaching sizes up to 18.64 pg/1C DNA, however, recent analyses comparing insect GSs neglected the order Embioptera (webspinners). Our access to fresh specimens of 12 species from 6 of the 13 named taxonomic families provided a chance to determine if embiopterans also support bulky genomes. Flow cytometry results revealed that embiopteran GSs ranged from 2.41 to 7.56 pg/1C, similar to other polyneopterans. Based on previous studies reporting correlations with GS, we tested for correlations between GS and body length using independent contrasts. The ancestral state of the root was estimated at 4.57 pg/1C. A positive relationship was detected whereby larger-bodied webspinners displayed larger genomes, with female Antipaluria urichi (Saussure) (Clothodidae) having the largest genome at 7.56 pg/1C. This GS is approximately 3 times larger than the previously reported embiopteran GS of pg = 2.66 for a male Oligotoma saundersii (Westwood) (Oligotomidae). GS showed no consistent patterns of phylogenetic signal for Embioptera. The underlying causes for large genomes are briefly reviewed.

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Morphological transformation from fibers to sheets in embiopteran silk

et al. 2022

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Interpreting nature’s finest insect silks (Order Embioptera): hydropathy, interrupted repetitive motifs, and fiber-to-film transformation for two neotropical species

Cited by 4 publications

References 37 publications

Dispersal Risks and Decisions Shape How Non-kin Groups Form in a Tropical Silk-Sharing Webspinner (Insecta: Embioptera)

Dispersal Risks and Decisions Shape How Non-kin Groups Form in a Tropical Silk-Sharing Webspinner (Insecta: Embioptera)

Twelve more bulky genomes in the Polyneoptera: characterizing the Order Embioptera

Morphological transformation from fibers to sheets in embiopteran silk

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