Electrophoretic protein patterns of body extracts and species identification in some pseudoscorpions (Neobisiidae: Pseudoscorpiones: Arachnida).

Abstract

The technique of the universal film agarose electrophoresis has been used to detect biochemical characteristics of the body extract proteins in 3 different species and 2 genera of the pseudoscorpion family Neobisiidae. The migration rate of these proteins as well as their relative abundance for Neobisium carpaticum Beier, Neobisium macrodactylum (Daday) and Roncus pannonius Curcić, Dimitrijević & Karamata, from Yugoslavia, were compared. Electrophoretic identifications of these species showed both species-specific and (probably) intergeneric differences. It is assumed that body protein electrophoresis can be also used: (a) to differentiate species in any stage of their life cycle, (b) to reveal the presence of sibling species, and to differentiate the taxonomic and evolutionary interrelations both in congeneric as well as in other, more distant taxa.