Summary
The primary spermatocytes of an Opilionid, Acanthopachylus aculeatus show (at least as a rule) two bodies which in longitudinal sections appear as integrated of up to 12 dark bands each about 300 Å wide, interlaced with one another by a curtain of thin filaments. The same bodies appear in transversal sections as formed by an hexagonal lattice the nodal points of which are the cross sections of the dark bands. The study of spermatocytes at early prophase demonstrated that at the inception these bodies are formed by association of several structures comparable to those observed in the axis of paired autosomes and called synaptinemal complexes.
The findings in this species are compared with their similar in other species, particularly with species of Gryllidae.
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This investigation was supported by United States Public Health Service Research Grant GM 08337 from the Research Grants Branch, Division of Medical Sciences, and partly by Grant RF 61034 from The Rockefeller Foundation.
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Wettstein, R., Sotelo, J.R. Electron microscope study on the meiotic cycle of Acanthopachylus aculeatus (Arachnida; Opiliones). Chromosoma 17, 246–257 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00283601
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00283601