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First published online February 15, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 780-789 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.014043

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The functional morphology of color changing in a spider: development of ommochrome pigment granules

Teresita C. Insausti^* and Jérôme Casas

Université de Tours, Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l'Insecte, UMR CNRS 6035, Av. Monge, Parc Grandmont, 37200 Tours, France

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: tere.insausti{at}univ-tours.fr)

Accepted 13 December 2007

Studies on the formation of ommochrome pigment granules are very few, despite their generalized occurrence as screening pigments in insect eyes. This is particularly true for ommochrome granules responsible for epidermal coloration. The aims of this study were to characterize the localization of major body pigments in a color changing mimetic spider, Misumena vatia (Thomisidae), and to describe the formation and location of ommochrome pigment granules responsible for the spider's color change from white to yellow. The unpigmented cuticula of this spider is transparent. Both the guanine localized in guanine cells in the opisthosoma and the uric acid localized in epidermis cells in the prosoma are responsible for the white coloration. The bright yellow color is due to the combination of ommochrome pigment granules and the white reflectance from coincident guanine and/or uric acid. The formation of ommochrome pigment granules in epidermis cells proceeds via three distinctive steps. Translucent, UV fluorescent, progranules (type I) are produced by a dense network of endoplasmic reticulum associated with numerous mitochondria and glycogen rosettes. These progranules are present in white spiders only, and regularly distributed in the cytoplasm. The merging of several progranules of type I into a transient state (progranule type II) leads to the formation of granules (type III) characterized by their lack of fluorescence, their spherical sections and their osmophilic-electron-dense contents. They are found in yellow spiders and in the red stripes on the body sides. Their color varies from yellow to red. Thus, white spiders contain only type I granules, yellow tinted spiders contain type II and III granules and bright yellow spiders contain only type III granules. We present a synthetic view of the ontogeny of ommochrome granules. We discuss the physiology of color changing and the nature of the chemical compounds in the different types of granules. Extended studies on the ultrastructural modification and physiological processes associated with color change are required before any statement about the adaptiveness of the color change can be made.

Key words: animal color, epidermis, zoochromes, kynurenine, 3-OH-kynurenine, mimetism, crab-spider, Misumena vatia