Morphology of internal organs and hemolymph of the bird-eating spiders Pterinochilus Murinus RCF (Araneae: Theraphosidae)

Abstract

The goal of the research was to study the morphological and histological properties of the internal organs and the hemolymph content of tarantula Pterinochilus murinus RCF (Araneae: Theraphosidae). For histological examination, 5 tarantulas of the Pterinochilus murinus RCF species, at the age of L6 (the sixth molt), were used. Morphological studies of tissues, organs, and hemocyte populations were carried out using light microscopy. Macroscopic photos of the heart, liver, lymphoid organs were presented with a description of their shape, structure and topography. The biomaterial was processed in accordance with the method of preparation of histological preparations, which included fixation, washing, dehydration, xylene and paraffin embeddings, preparation of histological sections, deparaffinization and staining with hematoxylin and eosin. Tissues and individual morphological cellular structures of the heart, liver, and lymphoid organs of tarantulas have been described. Also, smears of the spider hemolymph were made, which were fixed on a glass slide and stained by the Romanovsky-Giemsa method. The hemolymph of invertebrates is able to perform all the organism functions. During the study, several types of hemocytes were identified, which were classified primarily depending on morphological characteristics (cell size, shape, presence or absence of intracellular inclusions and their characteristics), the ability to be stained and the staining intensity of various morphological cell structures. The terminology of the described histological structures was given in accordance with the International Histological Nomenclature. Information about morphology of the organs, histological structure of the tissues and cells of tarantulas has been obtained expanding the knowledge of the Pterinochilus murinus RCF species.