The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period. The group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians (or their constituent clades) in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall, however, the basal relationships of animals are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various arthropod groups are still actively debated. Today, arthropods contribute to the human food supply both directly as food, and more importantly, indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread severe disease to humans, livestock, and crops. (Full article...)
H. socialis is the type species of Hughmilleriidae, a eurypterid family classified in the superfamily Pterygotioidea that is differentiated by their streamlined bodies, the enlargement of their medium-sized chelicerae and the presence of paired spines on the walking appendages. With the biggest specimen measuring 20 centimetres (8 inches) in length, Hughmilleria is considered a eurypterid of small size. (Full article...)
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Y. geinitzi worker
Yantaromyrmex is an extinctgenus of ants first described in 2013. Members of this genus are in the subfamily Dolichoderinae of the family Formicidae, known from Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene fossils found in Europe. The genus currently contains five described species, Y. constrictus, Y. geinitzi, Y. intermedius, Y. mayrianum and Y. samlandicus. The first specimens were collected in 1868 and studied by Austrian entomologist Gustav Mayr, who originally placed the fossils in other ant genera until the fossils were reviewed and subsequently placed into their own genus. These ants are small, measuring from 4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in) in length and can be characterized by their trapezoidal shaped head-capsules and oval compound eyes that are located slightly to the rear of the capsules midpoint, with no known ocelli present. (Full article...)
This woodwasp is an invasive species in many parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, and South Africa, where it has become a significant economic pest of pine trees. The wasp can attack a wide variety of pine species, although some species seem to be more susceptible than others, and stressed trees often are attacked.
Polistes exclamans, the Guinea paper wasp, is a socialwasp and is part of the family Vespidae of the order Hymenoptera. It is found throughout the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica and parts of Canada. Due to solitary nest founding by queens, P. exclamans has extended its range in the past few decades and now covers the eastern half of the United States, as well as part of the north. This expansion is typically attributed to changing global climate and temperatures. P. exclamans has three specific castes, including males, workers, and queens, but the dominance hierarchy is further distinguished by age. The older the wasp is, the higher it is in ranking within the colony. In most P. exclamans nests, there is one queen who lays all the eggs in the colony. The physiological similarities between the worker and queen castes have led to experiments attempting to distinguish the characteristics of these two castes and how they are determined, though males have easily identifiable physiological characteristics. Since P. exclamans live in relatively small, open combed nests, they are often subject to predators and parasites, such as Chalcoela iphitalis, Elasmus polistis, and birds. P. exclamans have defense and recognition strategies that help protect against these predators and parasites. (Full article...)
With a body length of 54 cm (21 in), Megarachne was a medium-sized eurypterid. If the original identification as a spider had been correct, Megarachne would have been the largest known spider to have ever lived. Eurypterids such as Megarachne are often called "sea scorpions", but the strata in which Megarachne has been found indicates that it dwelled in freshwater and not in marine environments.
Megarachne was similar to other eurypterids within the Mycteropoidea, a rare group known primarily from South Africa and Scotland. The mycteropoids had evolved a specialized method of feeding referred to as sweep-feeding. This involved raking through the substrate of riverbeds in order to capture and eat smaller invertebrates. Despite only two specimens having been recovered, Megarachne represents the most complete eurypterid discovered in Carboniferous deposits in South America so far. Due to their fragmentary fossil record and similarities between the genera, some researchers have hypothesized that Megarachne and two other members of its family, Mycterops and Woodwardopterus, represent different developmental stages of a single genus. (Full article...)
Sphecomyrma is an extinct genus of ants which existed in the Cretaceous approximately 79 to 92 million years ago. The first specimens were collected in 1966, found embedded in amber which had been exposed in the cliffs of Cliffwood, New Jersey, by Edmund Frey and his wife. In 1967, zoologists E. O. Wilson, Frank Carpenter and William L. Brown, Jr. published a paper describing and naming Sphecomyrma freyi. They described an ant with a mosaic of features—a mix of characteristics from modern ants and aculeate wasps. It possessed a metapleural gland, a feature unique to ants. Furthermore, it was wingless and had a petiole which was ant-like in form. The mandibles were short and wasp-like with only two teeth, the gaster was constricted, and the middle and hind legs had double tibial spurs. The antennae were, in form, midway between the wasps and ants, having a short first segment but a long flexible funiculus. Three additional species, S. canadensis, S. mesaki and S. nexa, were described in 1985, 2005, and 2024, respectively.
The genus is among the earliest known ants to roam the earth and at the time was considered to be the evolutionary link between ants and wasps. It was suggested that ants diverged from tiphiid wasp ancestors, but later studies show that they originate from a different clade. It shows resemblance to extant primitive ants such as Nothomyrmecia and members of the tribe Aneuretini. Some scientists, however, doubted the nature of these ants and believed they were wasps due to the possible absence of the metapleural gland in Sphecomyrma and short scapes which are key diagnostic traits for ants. Additional specimens collected proved Sphecomyrma was an ant as the metapleural gland was identified. Further fossil evidence, along with its slender body and large compound eyes, suggest that they were epigaeic, foraging socially above ground and out in open areas. The sphecomyrmines, including these ants, most likely vanished by the end of the Mesozoic. (Full article...)
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Abantiades latipennis, known as the Pindi moth, is a species of moth in the family Hepialidae. It may also be referred to as a swift moth or a ghost moth, as this is a common name associated with Hepialidae. Endemic to Australia and identified in 1932, it is most populous in temperate rainforest where eucalypti are prevalent, as the larvae feed primarily on the roots of these trees. Females lay eggs during flight in a scattering fashion. The larvae live for over eighteen months underground, while adult moths survive for approximately one week, as they have no mouthparts with which to feed. The moths are preyed upon by a number of predators, including bats and owls. Brown in colour overall, males are paler and the identifying silver bars of the male's wings are more prominent than those of the female's, with dark margins. Male adults are generally smaller.
Established clearfelling practices have been shown to favour the Pindi moth, and could lead to it being considered a pest due to opportunistic proliferation of the species. The resulting damage caused to the trees on which it feeds may be considered significant. (Full article...)
The antlions are a group of about 2,000 species of insect in the neuropteranfamilyMyrmeleontidae. They are known for the predatory habits of their larvae, which mostly dig pits to trap passing ants or other prey. In North America, the larvae are sometimes referred to as doodlebugs because of the marks they leave in the sand. The adult insects are less well known due to their relatively short lifespans compared to the larvae. Adults, sometimes known as antlion lacewings, mostly fly at dusk or just after dark and may be mistakenly identified as dragonflies or damselflies.
Antlions have a worldwide distribution. The greatest diversity occurs in the tropics, but a few species are found in cold-temperate locations, one such being the European Euroleon nostras. They most commonly occur in dry and sandy habitats where the larvae can easily excavate their pits, but some larvae hide under debris or ambush their prey among leaf litter.
Antlions are poorly represented in the fossil record. Myrmeleontiformia is generally accepted to be a monophyletic group, and within the Myrmeleontoidea, the antlions' closest living relatives are thought to be the owlflies (Ascalaphidae). A 2019 study finds Myrmeleontidae to be monophyletic, aside from Stilbopteryginae and Palparinae, which form separate clades closer to Ascalaphidae. The predatory actions of the larvae have attracted attention throughout history and antlions have been mentioned in literature since classical times. (Full article...)
Pholcus phalangioides, commonly known as the cosmopolitan cellar spider, long-bodied cellar spider or one of various types called a daddy long-legs spider, is a spider of the family Pholcidae. It is also known as the skull spider, since its cephalothorax is said to resemble a human skull. This is the only spider species described by the Swiss entomologistJohann Kaspar Füssli, who first recorded it in 1775. Its common name of "daddy long-legs" should not be confused with a different arachnid group with the same common name, the harvestman (Opiliones), or the crane flies of the superfamily Tipuloidea.
Females have a body length of about 8 mm while males tend to be slightly smaller. The length of the spider's legs are on average 5 or 6 times the length of its body. Pholcus phalangioides has a habit of living on the ceilings of rooms, caves, garages or cellars.
This spider species is considered beneficial in parts of the world because it preys on other spiders, including species considered dangerous such as redback spiders. Pholcus phalangioides is known to be harmless to humans and a potential for the medicinal use of their silk has been reported. (Full article...)
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Fossil specimen of A. mansfieldi illustrated by James Hall
Adelophthalmus is a genus of eurypterid, an extinct group of aquatic arthropods. Fossils of Adelophthalmus have been discovered in deposits ranging in age from the Early Devonian to the Early Permian, which makes it the longest lived of all known eurypterid genera, with a total temporal range of over 120 million years. Adelopththalmus was the final genus of the Eurypterina suborder of eurypterids and consisted the only known genus of swimming eurypterids from the Middle Devonian until its extinction during the Permian, after which the few surviving eurypterids were all walking forms of the suborder Stylonurina.
Fossils of Adelophthalmus have been described from four continents; North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, which indicates that Adelophthalmus might have had a nearly cosmopolitan (worldwide) distribution, one of few eurypterid genera to achieve one besides potentially Pterygotus. The territorial expansion of Adelophthalmus had begun early, with representatives found in both Siberia and Australia during the Devonian, but it first gained its almost cosmopolitan distribution following the amalgamation of the supercontinent Pangaea during the Carboniferous and Permian.
The generic name Adelophthalmus means "no obvious eye", referencing that the holotype fossil seemingly represented an eyeless eurypterid, with a carapace (head plate) completely lacking any indication of eyes. Though this has caused much subsequent confusion, including the naming of several junior synonyms, the apparent eyelessness of the type specimen is treated by modern researchers as a preservational artifact, and not a feature that any species of Adelophthalmus would have possessed in life. (Full article...)
Beetles are insects that form the orderColeoptera (/koʊliːˈɒptərə/), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 described species, is the largest of all orders, constituting almost 40% of described insects and 25% of all known animal species; new species are discovered frequently, with estimates suggesting that there are between 0.9 and 2.1 million total species. Found in almost every habitat except the sea and the polar regions, they interact with their ecosystems in several ways: beetles often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are serious agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle, while others such as Coccinellidae (ladybirds or ladybugs) eat aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops. Some others also have unique characteristics, such as the common eastern firefly, which uses a light-emitting organ for mating and communication purposes
Beetles typically have a particularly hard exoskeleton including the elytra, though some such as the rove beetles have very short elytra while blister beetles have softer elytra. The general anatomy of a beetle is quite uniform and typical of insects, although there are several examples of novelty, such as adaptations in water beetles which trap air bubbles under the elytra for use while diving. Beetles are holometabolans, which means that they undergo complete metamorphosis, with a series of conspicuous and relatively abrupt changes in body structure between hatching and becoming adult after a relatively immobile pupal stage. Some, such as stag beetles, have a marked sexual dimorphism, the males possessing enormously enlarged mandibles which they use to fight other males. Many beetles are aposematic, with bright colors and patterns warning of their toxicity, while others are harmless Batesian mimics of such insects. Many beetles, including those that live in sandy places, have effective camouflage.
The caddisflies, or orderTrichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the basis of the adult mouthparts. Integripalpian larvae construct a portable casing to protect themselves as they move around looking for food, while annulipalpian larvae make themselves a fixed retreat in which they remain, waiting for food to come to them. The affinities of the small third suborder Spicipalpia are unclear, and molecular analysis suggests it may not be monophyletic. Also called sedge-flies or rail-flies, the adults are small moth-like insects with two pairs of hairy membranous wings. They are closely related to the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) which have scales on their wings; the two orders together form the superorder Amphiesmenoptera.
The aquatic larvae are found in a wide variety of habitats such as streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, spring seeps and temporary waters (vernal pools), and even the ocean. The larvae of many species use silk to make protective cases, which are often strengthened with gravel, sand, twigs, bitten-off pieces of plants, or other debris. The larvae exhibit various feeding strategies, with different species being predators, leaf shredders, algal grazers, or collectors of particles from the water column and benthos. Most adults have short lives during which they do not feed.
In fly fishing, artificial flies called dry flies are tied to imitate adults, while larvae and pupae are imitated with artificial flies called wet flies or nymphs. It is also possible to use them as bait, though this is not as common as artificial flies and is known as bait fishing. Common and widespread genera such as Helicopsyche and Hydropsyche are important in the sport, where caddisflies are known as "sedges". Caddisflies are useful as bioindicators, as they are sensitive to water pollution and are large enough to be assessed in the field. In art, the French artist Hubert Duprat has created works by providing caddis larvae with small grains of gold and precious stones for them to build into decorative cases. (Full article...)
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Throughout history, spiders have been depicted in popular culture, mythology and in symbolism. From Greek mythology to African folklore, the spider has been used to represent a variety of things, and endures into the present day with characters such as Shelob from The Lord of the Rings and Spider-Man from the eponymous comic series. It is also a symbol of mischief and malice for its toxic venom and the slow death it causes, which is often seen as a curse. In addition, the spider has inspired creations from an ancient geoglyph to a modern steampunkspectacle. Spiders have been the focus of fears, stories and mythologies of various cultures for centuries.
The spider has symbolized patience and persistence due to its hunting technique of setting webs and waiting for its prey to become ensnared. Numerous cultures attribute the spider's ability to spin webs with the origin of spinning, textile weaving, basket weaving, knotwork and net making. Spiders are associated with creation myths because they seem to weave their own artistic worlds. Philosophers often use the spider's web as a metaphor or analogy, and today terms such as the Internet or World Wide Web evoke the inter-connectivity of a spider web.
Cyrtophora citricola, also known as the tropical tent-web spider, is an orb-weaver spider in the family Araneidae. It is found in Asia, Africa, Australia, Costa Rica, Hispaniola, Colombia, and Southern Europe and in 2000, it was discovered in Florida. C. citricola differs from many of its close relatives due its ability to live in a wide variety of environments. In North America and South America, the spider has caused extensive damage to agricultural operations.
C. citricola is in the orb web spider family, but its orb webs are considered atypical. They have a thick silk strand barrier above the orb and a thinner barrier below the orb. This gives the webs a horizontal mesh-like appearance. The spider has developed distinct and specific prey-capturing techniques using its unconventional webs. The prey flies into the upper mesh layer of the web and is deflected into the orb web. The spider then collects and stores the prey in its web. The difference in C. citricola's web silk stems from physiological variations in its spinning apparatuses, as compared to other closely related species. Its webs are non-adhesive and do not require daily respinning.
This spider is one of the few species to exhibit a variable level of sociality. C. citricola can be seen in colonies, which may have arisen due to reduced predation. Within these colonies, each spider has its own web that is linked to other spiders through communal webbing. The spider webs are often built in large matrices next to one another and can span entire trees. The spider usually peacefully coexists with other spiders in the colony. However, at times the spider may have to ward off other spiders in the colony that may try and claim its web. (Full article...)
Ticks are parasitic arachnids of the order Ixodida. They are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, species, and "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. The timing of the origin of ticks is uncertain, though the oldest known tick fossils are from the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years old. Ticks are widely distributed around the world, especially in warm, humid climates.
Ticks belong to two major families, the Ixodidae or hard ticks, and the Argasidae, or soft ticks. Nuttalliella, a genus of tick from southern Africa, is the only member of the family Nuttalliellidae, and represents the most primitive living lineage of ticks. Adults have ovoid/pear-shaped bodies (idiosomas) which become engorged with blood when they feed, and eight legs. Their cephalothorax and abdomen are completely fused. In addition to having a hard shield on their dorsal surfaces, known as the scutum, hard ticks have a beak-like structure at the front containing the mouthparts, whereas soft ticks have their mouthparts on the underside of their bodies. Ticks locate potential hosts by sensing odor, body heat, moisture, and/or vibrations in the environment.
Ticks have four stages to their life cycle, namely egg, larva, nymph, and adult. Ticks belonging to the Ixodidae family undergo either a one-host, two-host, or three-host life cycle. Argasid ticks have up to seven nymphal stages (instars), each one requiring blood ingestion, and as such, Argasid ticks undergo a multihost life cycle. Because of their hematophagous (blood-ingesting) diets, ticks act as vectors of many serious diseases that affect humans and other animals. (Full article...)
The following are images from various arthropod-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1The house centipedeScutigera coleoptrata has rigid sclerites on each body segment. Supple chitin holds the sclerites together and connects the segments flexibly. Similar chitin connects the joints in the legs. Sclerotised tubular leg segments house the leg muscles, their nerves and attachments, leaving room for the passage of blood to and from the hemocoel (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 2The fangs in spiders' chelicerae are so sclerotised as to be greatly hardened and darkened (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 3Decapods, from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 work Kunstformen der Natur (from Crustacean)
Image 7Body structure of a typical crustacean – krill (from Crustacean)
Image 8This Zoea-stage larva is hardly recognisable as a crab, but each time it sheds its cuticle it remodels itself, eventually taking on its final crab form (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 9Mature queen of a termite colony, showing how the unsclerotised cuticle stretches between the dark sclerites that failed to stretch as the abdomen grew to accommodate her ovaries (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 10In honeypot antrepletes, the abdomens of the workers that hold the sugar solution grow vastly, but only the unsclerotised cuticle can stretch, leaving the unstretched sclerites as dark islands on the clear abdomen (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 14 This fully-grown robber crab has tough fabric forming its joints, delicate biomineralized cuticle over its sensory antennae, optic-quality over its eyes, and strong, calcite-reinforced chitin armouring its body and legs; its pincers can break into coconuts (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 19Ghost crab, showing a variety of integument types in its exoskeleton, with transparent biomineralization over the eyes, strong biomineralization over the pincers, and tough chitin fabric in the joints and the bristles on the legs (from Arthropod exoskeleton)
Image 25Some of the various hypotheses of myriapod phylogeny. Morphological studies (trees a and b) support a sister grouping of Diplopoda and Pauropoda, while studies of DNA or amino acid similarities suggest a variety of different relationships, including the relationship of Pauropoda and Symphyla in tree c. (from Myriapoda)
Image 33Formation of anterior segments across arthropod taxa based on gene expression and neuroanatomical observations, Note the chelicera(Ch) and chelifore(Chf) arose from somite 1 and thus correspond to the first antenna(An/An1) of other arthropods. (from Chelicerata)
Xylotrupes socrates (Siamese rhinoceros beetle, or "fighting beetle"), male, on a banana leaf. This scarab beetle is particularly known for its role in insect fighting in Northern Laos and Thailand.
Sympetrum danae, the black darter or black meadowhawk, is a species of dragonfly found in northern Europe, Asia, and North America. Both sexes are black and yellow, but the abdomen of the male is largely black while that of the female is largely yellow. Breeding takes place in shallow acidic pools, lake margins and ditches in lowland heaths and moorland bogs. The female lays her eggs during flight by dipping the tip of her abdomen into the water. The eggs hatch the following spring, the larvae developing very rapidly and emerging as adults in as little as two months. The male seen here is perched on a frond of bracken on Warren Heath in Hampshire, England.
An assassin bug belonging to the Reduviidae family of insects. A predatory insect so named because of its tendency to wait in ambush for its prey, the assassin bug uses its long rostrum to inject a lethal saliva that liquefies the internal structures of the prey, which are then sucked out.
A mole cricket, an insect belonging to the Gryllotalpidaefamily. Mole crickets are common insects, found on every continent except Antarctica, but because they are nocturnal and spend nearly all their lives underground in extensive tunnel systems, they are rarely seen. This specimen is likely to be Gryllotalpa brachyptera and is about 3.5 cm (1.4 in.) in size.
A compound eye is a visual organ found in certain arthropods. The compound eye consists of between 12 and 1,000 ommatidia, little dark/bright sensors. The image perceived by the arthropod is "recalculated" from the numerous ommatidia which point in slightly different directions. In contrast to other eye types, there is no central lens or retina. Though the resulting image is poor in resolution, it can detect quick movements and, in some cases, the polarization of light.
Dragonflies have about 30,000 facets to their compound eyes, giving them nearly a 360° field of vision.
A honey bee extracts nectar from a flower using its proboscis. Tiny hairs covering the bee's body maintain a slight electrostatic charge, causing pollen from the flower's anthers to stick to the bee's hairs, allowing for pollination when the bee moves on to another flower.
The light blue soldier crab (Mictyris longicarpus) inhabits beaches in the Indo-Pacific region. Soldier crabs filter sand or mud for microorganisms. They congregate during the low tide, and bury themselves in a corkscrew pattern during high tide, or whenever they are threatened.
A macro shot of the head of a dragonfly, focusing on its compound eyes. Dragonfly eyes have up to 30,000 facets; each one is a separate light-sensing organ or ommatidium, arranged to give nearly a 360° field of vision.
The head of a female Clynotis severus species of jumping spider. The eyes of a spider are called simple eyes (as opposed to compound eyes) because in each eye, a single lens collects and focuses light onto the retina. In this spider, the two largest eyes in the middle are the most acute. The remainder on the sides and on the top of its head are "secondary eyes".
A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal prismaticwax cells built by honey bees in their hives to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Honey bees consume about 8.4 lb (3.8 kg) of honey to secrete 1 lb (0.5 kg) of wax. As such, many beekeepers attempt to conserve honeycombs where possible.
The orb-weaver spiders (family Araneidae) are the familiar builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields and forests. The family is a large one, including over 2800 species in over 160 genera worldwide, making it the third largest known (behind Salticidae and Linyphiidae). The web has always been thought of as an engineering marvel.
The cryptic mantis (Sibylla pretiosa) is a mantid native to southern Africa. Its common name comes from its ability to grow asymmetrically to match the vegetation of its environment. They have unusual leaf-like projections on the joint of their four walking legs and leaf-like wings, generally the only green portion of the insect's otherwise brown and mottled exoskeleton. Adult females grow to 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) in length while the males are generally about 1 cm smaller.
Zonocerus variegatus, the variegated grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper in the family Pyrgomorphidae native to tropical western and central Africa. It feeds on a wide variety of plant foods and causes damage to crops, particularly cassava, groundnuts and vegetables, as well as transmitting diseases caused by mosaic viruses between plants. This Z. variegatus grasshopper was photographed in the Bobiri Forest in Ghana.
Purana tigrina is a species of cicada found in Southeast Asia. This adult male was photographed in Kadavoor, Kerala, in southern India, and is about one inch (25 mm) in length. The mouthparts are adapted to piercing plant tissues and sucking sap; the male abdomen houses the tymbal, an organ used in the production of song, while the female abdomen is tipped by a large, saw-edged ovipositor.
Argiope trifasciata, the banded garden or banded orb-weaving spider, is a species of arachnid in the family Araneidae. It is native to North and South America but has spread to other parts of the world. This ventral view of a female A. trifasciata shows her in the centre of her web, which can reach a diameter of 60 cm (24 in). The function of the zig-zag web decorations is unclear, but they may serve to make the spider appear larger or to act as a warning sign.
The Ozyptila praticola species of crab spider is found throughout Europe and the Middle East. They do not build webs to trap prey, but are active hunters. Crab spiders are so named because of their first two pairs of legs, which are held out to the side giving them a crab-like appearance. Also, like crabs, these spiders move sideways and backwards more easily than forwards.
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