Fig. 1. Diagram of cutter claw with lateral portion of exoskeleton removed to
reveal the arrangement of the closer muscle. The central region of the muscle
is composed of large fibers that are the fast phenotype. The ventral and
distal regions of the closer are slow, with the ventral region composed of
S1 fibers and the distal region composed of S2 fibers.
Previous work by Lang et al.
(1980) demonstrated that these
regions are controlled by phasic (central), tonic (distal) or both (ventral)
motor neurons. The same study showed that the distal region of both claws
possessed highly oxidative fibers. The basic anatomy of the crusher claw is
similar to that of the cutter but is composed entirely of S1
fibers.