인간의 생태계와 서식환경을 공유하고 있는 정주성 거미류의 경우 제한된 서식지 이동 특성으로 인해, 특정유해환경을 효과적으로 감시할 수 있는 환경 지표생물로서의 활용가치가 매우 높은 생명체로 판단된다. 따라서 본 연구는 석면 섬유에 노출시킨 거미의 서폐 미세구조를 관찰하고, 그 결과를 토대로 유해환경을 모니터링할 수 있는 생물지표로서의 활용 가능성에 대해 논의하였다. 고해상도의 주사전자현미경으로 서폐의 미세구조를 관찰한 결과, 기공 주위에 분지된 수지상의 큐티클지주(spike)는 기낭으로 유입되는 공기를 정화하는 필터구조로 작동하였고, 기낭 내부에 수직돌출된 큐티클 지주는 기낭 공간을 안정적으로 확보하고 호흡 표면적을 극대화하는 구조체임이 확인되었다. 짧은 노출 기간에도 불구하고, 기공 개구부의 전 영역에서 청석면의 미세섬유가 검출되어 석면과 같은 환경 오염원에 대한 효과적인 생물지표로서의 가능성을 거미의 서폐에서 확인하였다. 또한, 기낭으로 유입되어 혈림프 공간을 관통한 미세섬유는 고착구조를 형성하고 조직손상을 유발함이 관찰되었는데, 섬유 주위에 밀집된 혈구는 흔히 관찰되었으나, 섬유 표면에 부착된 혈구나 석면소체 등은 관찰되지 않았다. 이는 상대적으로 짧은 석면노출기간에서 기인하는 것으로 해석되었다.

Male crickets (Order Orthoptera), producing sound for courting females and threatening other males, were chosen to perform researches for the better understanding of the microstructures of sound producing organs. It is known that cricket only makes sound for mating-related events. In this research, two patterns out chirping patterns were observed and analyzed. Each chirp was made of several nodes of waves, each node indicates a movement of wings – friction caused by file and plectrum located on wings. Although both wings possess file and plectrum, only the file on right wing and plectrum on left wing are used to produce sound. Each file consists of 126 teeth, where plectrum gets hooked. The teeth located on file have consistent gap between each other, proportional to the wave nodes acquired – except that the gap in the second region among equally divided six regions were shorter. In case of the usage of file, a cricket mostly uses second region to fifth region, since the teeth in first and sixth region are smaller. Since most of the researches made are mainly focused on the correlation between sound production and behavioral pattern, the current research project aims to reveal and provide thorough understanding on the sound producing organs of cricket, to suggest possible biomimetic applications in our daily lives.

Ips acuminatus is a minute bark beetle found in forest and can cause economic damage to pine and spruce trees. This beetle has well developed sensory system respond to both of visual and chemical stimuli. Both sexes have a pair of faceted compound eyes and another pair of knobbed antennae, work together to collect vital information. The antennae look similar in both sexes and consist of scape, pedicel, and segmented flagellum. The pedicel is the first segment by which the antenna is attached to the head and the scape is set in a membranous socket and surrounded by the antennal sclerite on which a single articulation occurs. The beetle’s antennae enlarge abruptly at the last segment of a flagellum giving the antenna a knobbed appearance. There are a number of sensory receptors, including olfactory and mechanical receptors. Here, the fine structural characteristics of the antennal sensory organs in male and female bark beetle Ips acuminatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) were analysed with field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM).

In animals, structural coloration is the production of color by microscopically structured surfaces of many birds as well as many butterfly wings and beetles wing cases. This structural coloration is caused by interference effects rather than by pigments. It has been known that the colors are produced when a material is scored with fine parallel lines, formed of one or more parallel thin layers, or otherwise composed of microstructures on the scale of the colour’s wavelength. Current research is performed using light and scanning electron microscopes to examine the fine structural characteristics of scales in the three species of iridescent butterflies Papilio maackii, Charaxes tiridates and Anaea glaucone. It has been revealed that the structural coloration of these butterflies is responsible for the blues and greens of the scales of wings. In addition, the reflected color depends on the viewing angle, which in turn controls the apparent spacing of the structures responsible for specific color patterns of the wing scales.

Sperm cell development in spider species undergoes in testicular cyst, containing certain number of cells per cyst. As a germ cell matures through entire stages of spermatogenesis, testicular cysts rupture and produced spermatozoa are transferred in a form of cleistosperm. When mature spermatozoa pass through deferent duct, it is known that various types of seminal secretions are released into the lumen to provide auxillary functions to the mature sperms – such as nutrition, protection, or sperm release inside the female body. However, a peculiar type of seminal secretion was observed in this study. In the lumen of deferent duct, encapsulated seminal secretions are observed along with coiled sperm cells. Since the capsule is quite thick – as thick as the one of mature sperm cell, it is thought that the secretion capsule would be transferred as well along with the sperm cells into the spermathecae probably activiating sperm cells through decapsulation. Also, this study revealed that sperm storage in deferent duct occurs in droplet-by-droplet basis; which suggests possible sperm inducing mechanism. Since spider uses pedipalps in copulation to transfer its sperm cells, spider has to fill it accordingly. In other words, stored sperms in deferent duct are released in a droplet at once.

The caddisfly is an aquatic insects that resembles small moth. Silk is produced by the larvae through a pair of labial silk glands. The larvae, caddisworms, use silk not only to produce ‘capture nets’ to collect food particles from the water environment but also to construct ‘silken cases’ for their shelters in running water. Physically, two different processes of silk-producing systems are reported among the different species of arthropod animals: terrestrial and aquatic silk productions. Although both types of silks can be produced along its sophisticated process through a sequential pathway from silk gland, most of our recent knowledges of silk producing system are dependent on those revealed from the terrestrial animals including silkworms or spiders. Therefore, this experiment was initiated to reveal the fine structural aspects of the silk producing system of larval stage of the caddisfly Hydatophylax nigrovittatusu with light and electron microscopes