Arthropods

by: Kent Ferry Fuentes

Look at these animals. Can you
find the odd one out?
 Answer these questions:

1. Has the frog bilateral symmetry?

Has the frog many pairs of limbs?

2. Has the spider a segmented body?

Does if have jointed legs?

3. Has the ladybug a hard exoskeleton?

Does it have bilateral symmetry?
 Well done!

The spider and the ladybug have:

• Bilateral symmetry
• Segmented body
• Hard exoskeleton
• Jointed legs
• Many pairs of limbs

THEREFORE, they are Arthropods.

 What is an arthropod?

Arthropods (Arthros = joint,

Podium = foot) are animals that
lack a backbone. The name
arthropod refers to their jointed
limbs, which are their chief
characteristic.
 Characteristics of an Arthropod

• All arthropods have a body

supported by a hard external
skeleton (exoskeleton). To
allow growth, this exoskeleton
must be periodically shed, and
a new one rebuilt.
• The body of an arthropod is divided into
segments, a feature shared by some other
animal groups, such as earthworms (phylum
Annelida) and velvet worms (phylum
Onychophora).
• The appendages of arthropods—their legs,
antennae, and mouthparts—are jointed. This
is the feature that defines the phylum. (In
Greek, arthropod means “jointed foot.”)
• Internally, the nerve cord runs along the lower
(ventral) part of the body and is not enclosed in a
protective spinal column.
• Blood is moved by the aid of a tube-like heart,
located along the back (dorsal) part of the body.
• The overall body arrangement is bilaterally
symmetrical, so that, if the body were cut through
the center from head to tail, the two halves would
be a mirror image of one another.
 The Diversity and Abundance of Arthropods

• The arthropods are, by far, the most diverse life

form on the planet. Insects alone, with
approximately 970,000 known species, comprise
over one-half of all kinds of life known to occur on
the planet. This number is also a tiny fraction of all
the insects that ever were on the planet. It has been
suggested that perhaps 95% of all insects that have
ever existed, since their first appearance some 400
million years ago, are now extinct.
• Today, the number of insect species
thought to occur is often estimated
at about four to five million
species. The great majority of
these, at least 80%, remain
unknown to science so far.
• Progress is being made to close this gap,
with over 7,000 new insect species being
described annually, over 20 per day on
average. At this rate of new discovery,
impressive as it is, perhaps we can expect a
full catalog of the five million insects to be
ready in about 550 years or so.
• A much more difficult question to
answer is “How abundant are insects
and other arthropods in terms of total
population numbers?” One of the
problems is that the overwhelming
number of arthropods are minute and
live in soil.
• For example, one of the first attempts at
counting all of the arthropods in a
sample of soil was done in an English
pasture during November 1943. About
2.5 billion arthropods were estimated
per hectare, with mites comprising some
62% and springtails 23% of the total
number.
Springtails Soil Mites
 The Roles of Arthropods

• Pollination of flowering plants.

Insects are essential to the
pollination of most flowering
plants, and many of the flowering
plants are the result of
coevolution with their insect
pollinators.
A leafcutter bee pollinating sweet pea
• Recycling plant and animal matter.
Many insects develop by feeding on
dead plant matter, dead animal matter,
or animal dung. In this role, they
function as macro decomposers that are
in the first-line “clean-up crew”
essential to the recovery and recycling
of nutrients.
Blow flies colonizing fresh carrion
• Soil formation and mixing. The great
majority of terrestrial arthropods live within
the soil. These animals help to turn the soil
and incorporate organic matter and nutrients.
The impacts of these activities can be very
dramatic, with some of the social insects
(e.g., ants and termites) moving and mixing
tremendous amounts of soil as they tunnel.
Mound-building termites in Africa
• Centrality to animal food chains. Through their
feeding activities, plant-feeding insects (about 25% of
the species on the planet) convert plant biomass to
animal biomass. In turn, these creatures serve as the
primary source of food for other insects (another 25%
of the planet’s species) and for many birds, fish, and
mammals that are, in turn, food for yet still more
animals. Thus, plant-eating insects are the critical link
between plants and much of the rest of animal life on
Earth (including humans).
A bird eating a grasshopper
Classification
of Arthropods
 Myriapods

The name myriapod means “many feet,”

and this subphylum does indeed include
centipedes, millipedes, and other “many
feet” species. In total there are
approximately 13,000 species of
myriapods that are divided into four
classes:
• Chilopoda (centipedes)
• Diplopoda (millipedes)
• Pauropoda
• Symphyla
• Myriapods are all terrestrial animals and
are nearly all herbivores (plant-eaters).
The exceptions are the predatory
centipedes. Members of this class are
characterized by having a modified pair
of appendages called forcipules on their
heads that function as poison claws.
A centipede head showing the modified appendages that
function as poison claws called forcipules.
• There are also several sets of modified
appendages found on the head that function
as mouthparts. These include the mandible
and the maxillae. The mandible is a jaw-like
structure that is used to grasp, bite, and
even chew food. The maxillae are usually
used for manipulating food in the mouth
and swallowing.
• Millipedes were likely the very first
animals to live on land. So far, the
first land-dwelling organism to be
found in the fossil record is a species
of millipede called Pneumodesmus
newmani that lived on Earth 428
million years ago.
A fossilized region of the first known land animal, the myriapod
species Pneumodesmus newmani.
 Chelicerata

• Chelicerata is a fairly large

subphylum with about 70,000
species (mostly predatory)
including spiders, scorpions, mites,
and ticks. Their defining
characteristic is a pair of
specialized appendages called
chelicerae.
• Chelicerae are pointed mouthparts
used to grasp and immobilize prey.
Some have a sharp fang connected to
venom glands that allow the animal to
poison its prey, and others are strong
enough to pulverize the bodies of
prey.
 A spider with prominent blue-green chelicerae. The chelicerae are appendages
modified as pointed mouthparts that are used to pierce and grasp food. They often
release poisonous venom and can be used for defense.
 3 existing classes within the phylum
Chelicerata

• Arachnida - spiders, scorpions,

mites, ticks
• Xiphosura - horseshoe crabs
(marine)
• Pycnogonida - sea spiders
 Hexapoda

• The subphylum Hexapoda is

enormous, with approximately one
million species alive today.
Hexapods are characterized as
having six legs or six appendages
that are dedicated to walking.
 3 Classes of Hexapoda

•Collembola
•Protura
•Diplura
 Crustacea
• Approximately 30,000 species make up
this Subphylum. Most are aquatic; of
these, the majority are marine but some
are found in fresh water. Most crustaceans
are free-living, but some are sessile and a
few are even parasitic. Most use their
maxillae and mandibles to take in food.
 4 Types of Crustacean
The Brachiopoda, or Lampshells are
an ancient phylum of filter feeding
marine worms. They live inside a pair
of shells much like the more
numerous bivalves, however they are
no more related bivalves than people
are starfish.
• Brachiopods are small animals with the
largest living species having a shell
length of about 10 cm (4 in). There are
only about 350 living species of
Brachiopods known to science now. The
largest fossil (Gigantoproductus
giganteus) species had a shell length of
over 30 cm (12 in).
The largest fossil (Gigantoproductus giganteus)
• Maxillopoda is a large class of mostly small
crustaceans (typically 0.5–2 mm) with over
14,000 described species consisting of
freshwater and marine copepods, marine
barnacles, and a few other groups, including
fish lice. Most species are free-living, but some
individuals of all subclasses and some entire
subclasses are parasitic. All species have a
reduced abdomen with few or no appendages.
The smallest known arthropod, Stygotantulus
stocki
• The Ostracoda are one of the most
successful crustacean groups with
approximately 8000 living species.
Ostracods are generally small,
ranging in length from 0.1 to 32 mm
(that's smaller than a poppy seed to
the size of a meatball).
Gigantocypris
• Malacostraca is the largest group
of crustaceans, containing about
40,000 living species. They are
abundant in all marine
environments and have colonised
freshwater and terrestrial habitats.
Mantis Shrimp