Skip to main content
Entomology 2025 Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
 
Oral Presentation
Oral Presentation
Poster Display
Poster Display
Student Competition
Student Competition
Ticketed Event
Ticketed Event

Student 10-Minute Presentation Competition

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

Student Competition

Student

Grad 10-min Competition: SysEB, Behavior, Genetics, and Morphology

Silk gene expression and silk gland morphology across Rhyacophila brunnea larval instars

Monday, November 10, 2025
11:42 AM - 11:54 AM Pacific
Location: Oregon Convention Center, C120-122, OCC
Oral Presentation Student Competition
Trichoptera are a diverse aquatic insect order in which larvae synthesize silk in modified salivary glands, termed the silk organ. They deploy silk underwater to build a variety of structures used for shelter, food capture, and to aid in respiration. In the suborder Integripalpia, the majority of larvae build portable cases using silk and materials found in the stream. These cases are eventually used for pupation as well. In contrast, some species, such as members of the family Rhyacophilidae, are predominantly free-living and primarily use silk during their later instars to construct a rock dome and semipermeable cocoon for pupation. Although silk is vital for the survival of caddisfly larvae, little is known about changes in silk production and morphology in the silk organ throughout development. Given the varying silk use across development, studying silk gland morphology and gene expression across larval instars in Rhyacophilidae will shed light on the requirements for silk production in caddisflies. To perform this assessment, we collected Rhyacophila brunnea across multiple larval instars from a mountain stream in Utah, USA. We carried out transcriptome sequencing of early- and late-instar larvae to determine changes in gland expression. We also analyzed microCT images of the silk organ in early and late instars to assess morphological variations. Here, we share the preliminary results from this work.