Nov. 16, 2009

Open your Eyes: Mites Spin a Line

Tetranychus urticae is a phytophagous mite living in group. Every individual produces silk strands and constructs a common web for the colony. In spite of the silk value for T. urticae survival, silk remains poorly studied. We developed a technique to dye the silk on both inert and living substrates. Fluorescent brightener 28 was used to visualize the silk. This technique will help to carry out future studies about the web architecture of T. urticae and other silk-spinning arthropods. Introduction more