Arthropod Biodiversity and Anatomy

Vocabulary flashcards covering the characteristics, anatomy, and major clades of arthropods including chelicerates, crustaceans, and insects based on the lecture transcript.

Chitin

The material composing the hard exoskeleton of arthropods, which provides protection and muscle adhesion but limits growth until it is shed.

Chelicerae

Specialized appendages located near the mouth of chelicerates, which can be modified into claws, pincers, or fangs depending on the group.

Penny palps

The first pair of small appendages positioned near the mouth in arachnids.

Spinnerets

Tiny structures at the back of a spider's abdomen that spin silk produced by associated organs into webs and prey-capturing structures.

Ticks

Arachnids with piercing mouthparts that feed primarily on the blood of mammals and reptiles, transmitting illnesses such as Lyme disease and rocky ground swat fever.

Isopods

Crustaceans, including pill bugs and roly polies, that breathe exclusively through gills and must inhabit moist environments to keep them damp.

Decapods

A group of crustaceans that includes crabs, lobsters, and shrimps, characterized by having two pairs of antennae, pincer-bearing appendages, and usually four pairs of walking legs.

Swimmerets

A series of abdominal appendages found on decapods, particularly visible on lobsters and shrimps.

Barnacles

Sessile crustaceans that attach to substrates head face-down and use their modified, feather-like legs as filter-feeding or suspension-feeding appendages.

Sacculoidin

A parasitic barnacle that infects crabs by burrowing into the carapace, forming a diffuse slimy mass that replaces the crab's egg brood sack, and causing infected male crabs to adopt female traits.

Insects

The most dominant terrestrial and freshwater animal group in terms of species count, recognized as the first animals to evolve powered flight.

Metamorphosis

A developmental process occurring in most insects that involves passing through multiple larval stages in either an incomplete or complete form.