Phylum Arthropoda : General Characteristics and Classification

Gr. Arthos : Jointed         podos: legs

  • Animals with jointed legs
  • Largest phylum in Animal kingdom in both number of taxa and biomass
  • Most successful group of  animals due to chitinous skeleton.
  • Bilaterally symmetrical, triploblastic, metamerically segmented and tagmatization
  • Segments are not separated as in annelids; external segmentation is present.
  • Organ system level of body organization.
  • Body is divided into three tagmata : head , thorax and abdomen ; Head and thorax are fused in some animals called cephalothorax
  • Reduced coelom in adult ; body cavity consists of haemocoel ; so called haemocoelomate.
  • Alimentary canal completing consisting of foregut, midgut and hindgut.
  • Mouthparts adapted for various modes of feeding :

Biting and chewing type :   Cockroach , grasshopper etc.

Chewing and lapping :         Bees and wasps

Piercing and sucking :          Bugs, Aphids, Mosquitoes

Sponging :                              Housefly

Siphoning :                           Butterflies and moths

  • Circulatory system open type with dorsal contractile heart.
  • Respiration by general body surface or special structure such as gills, trachea or book lungs.
  • Excretory system are coxal glands, green or maxillary (in aquatic forms) and Malpighian tubules (in terrestrial forms).
  • Major excretory product is uric acid
  • Nervous system with dorsal nerve ring and a double ventral nerve cord.
  • Sense organs comprise antennae, simple eyes, compound eyes, statocysts, chemoreceptors and taste receptors.
  • Usually dioecious. Fertilization internal.
  • Majority are oviparous, few like scorpios are ovoviviparous.
  • Development direct or indirect, one to many larval stages, parthenogenesis in some.


CLASSIFICATION

Subphylum 1 : ONYCHOPHORA

Most primitive ; commonly called velvet worms or walking worms

eg : Peripatus (connecting link of arthropods and annelids)

Subphylum 2 : TRILOBITOMORPHA

These are fossil arthropods

Subphylum 3 : CHELICERATA

1st pair of appendages are chelicerae , second pair are pedipalps.

Body divided into prosoma (cephalothorax) and opisthosoma (abdomen)

Subphylum 4: MANDIBULATA

Body divided into head, thorax and abdomen, have one or 2 pairs of antennae, a pair of jawa (mandibles), one or two pairs of maxillae

 

 

 

 

Binod G C

I'm Binod G C (MSc), a PhD candidate in cell and molecular biology who works as a biology educator and enjoys scientific blogging. My proclivity for blogging is intended to make notes and study materials more accessible to students.

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