An electron microscope study of the karyotypes of two wolf spiders

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Abstract
Meiosis in 2 species of wolf spiders, Lycosa georgicola Walckenaer and L. rabida Walckenaer, were analyzed by light microscopy and EM. Both karyotypes comprise 13 autosomal pairs + X1X2, all except one pair of which are telocentric. The autosomes show a gradual increase in size ranging from 5.6-9.9% of the total genome length. The 2 X chromosomes of L. rabida are not significantly different in length. In both species, the 2 X chromosomes are loosely aligned at prophase, but never synapse in the true sense; they do not form synaptonemal complexes. This supports the evidence that X1 and X2 are not homologous. In L. georgicola, one of the X is associated at prophase with 1 autosomal pair, but this association does not persist to prometaphase.