title: A comparative morphological study of the epiandrous apparatus in mygalomorph spiders (Araneae, Mygalomorphae).
abstract: Many adult male spiders have silk glands which are not associated with the spinnerets. They occur on the anterior margin of the genital furrow and are used during the building of the sperm web and sperm droplet induction. These epiandrous glands exit the body through ducts which lead to specialized spigots. In the taxon Mygalomorphae, the presence of epiandrous spigots is just reported for a couple of species but their morphology has not been investigated. In this paper we provide a detailed study of the ultrastructure morphology of eighteen species belonging to eight families using light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We describe and present images of the epiandrous spigots above the genital opening. Also, we compare the morphology of spigots between families and describe the epiandrous glands through histology.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE), UNLP, CONICET, Boulevard 120s/n e/61 y 62, La Plata 1902, Argentina. Electronic address: nferretti@conicet.gov.ar.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ferretti
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur (INBIOSUR), UNS, CONICET, San Juan 670, Bahía Blanca 8000, Argentina. Electronic address: gabrielpompozzi@conicet.gov.ar.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pompozzi
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Biológicas y Biomédicas del Sur (INBIOSUR), UNS, CONICET, San Juan 670, Bahía Blanca 8000, Argentina. Electronic address: sofia.copperi@uns.edu.ar.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Copperi
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Citología, Histología y Embriología Animal, Dpto. de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, INBIOSUR, UNS, CONICET, San Juan 670, Bahía Blanca 8000, Argentina. Electronic address: anahiwehitt@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wehitt
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Citología, Histología y Embriología Animal, Dpto. de Biología, Bioquímica y Farmacia, INBIOSUR, UNS, CONICET, San Juan 670, Bahía Blanca 8000, Argentina. Electronic address: galindez@criba.edu.ar.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Galíndez
authors.affiliation: Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE), UNLP, CONICET, Boulevard 120s/n e/61 y 62, La Plata 1902, Argentina. Electronic address: asgonzalez@cepave.edu.ar.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: González
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias, Sección Entomología, Igua 4225, Montevideo 11400, Uruguay. Electronic address: myga@fcien.edu.uy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pérez-Miles
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D034582:Integumentary System; D008297:Male; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D013045:Species Specificity; D013112:Spiders / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification* / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure*
keywords: Epiandrous glands; Epiandrous spigots; Histology; Mygalomorphae; Spiders; Ultrastructure