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    General Characters of Arthropoda

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    General Characters of Arthropoda

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    Aaryan Naugaria
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    bsc

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    GENERAL CHARACTERS OF ARTHROPODA

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    13 views17 pages

    General Characters of Arthropoda

    Uploaded by

    Aaryan Naugaria
    bsc

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 17

    GENERAL CHARACTERS OF

    ARTHROPODA

    DR. SHOBHA SHRIVASTAVA


    ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
    DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY
    PATNA WOMEN’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS)
    PATNA UNIVERSITY, PATNA.
    GENERAL CHARACTERS OF ARTHROPODA

    INTRODUCTION
    GENERAL CHARACTERS OF ARTHROPODA
    INTRODUCTION

    • The term ‘Arthropoda’(Gr. Arthon-Joint, podos-legs) means ‘jointed


    legs’.
    • Arthropods were first studied by Aristotle.
    • German physiologist and zoologist Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold
    (1848) coined the term Arthropoda.
    • The phylum includes invertebrates with a chitinous exoskeleton and
    jointed legs, hence named, Arthropoda.
    • Spiders, centipedes, mites, crabs, ticks, lobsters, scorpions, shrimp, are
    some of the animals found in phylum Arthropoda.
    • A crustacean, the coconut crab, Birgus latro, is the largest arthropod on
    land.
    • According to fossil records, the first arthropods are believed to have
    evolved 545 million years ago.
    • It is believed that the arthropods evolved from the same root as the
    annelids.
    • Peripatus is a connecting link between Annelida and Arthropoda.
    • The three lineages of arthropods are believed to have evolved
    independently from a common ancestor.
    • Phylum Arthropoda includes about 86% species of animals, over a
    million described species (and many more yet to be described).
    PHYLUM ARTHROPODA BY NUMBERS
    • These species evolved certain adaptive features over the years to
    survive the changing climatic conditions and form the largest phylum
    in the animal kingdom.
    • The early arthropods evolved adaptations, such as tracheae, for
    breathing.
    • Scorpions, centipedes and millipedes were the first arthropods to
    have adapted to dry land.
    • They also developed exoskeleton that prevents the skin of the animals
    from drying and provides mechanical support.
    • Phylum Arthropoda is the most successful phylum on the Earth that
    has ever existed.
    GENERAL CHARACTERS OF ARTHROPODA

    The characteristics of Arthropoda are as follows :


    • Habitat is mostly terrestrial, some are also aquatic.
    • Cosmopolitan in distribution.
    • The body is triploblastic, segmented and bilaterally symmetrical.
    • They exhibit organ system level of organization.
    • Body is metamerically segmented.
    • The body is divided into head, thorax and abdomen or cephalothorax
    and abdomen.
    • Their body has jointed appendages which help in locomotion.
    • The exoskeleton is made of chitin.
    SEGMENTED BODY OF A GRASSHOPPER
    METAMERICALLY SEGMENTED BODY OF ARTHROPODS
    • The head bears a pair of compound eyes which contain several
    thousand lenses leading to a larger field of vision.
    • Ocelli (simple eye) may also be present
    • They possess a pair of antenna.
    • Digestive system is complete, straight and well developed.
    • The coelomic cavity is filled with blood – Haemocoel.
    • They have an open circulatory system with dorsal, tubular heart which
    has segmentally arranged ostia.
    • The blood is colorless, respiratory pigment is Haemocyanin.
    • The terrestrial forms respire through the trachea or book lungs while
    the aquatic forms respire through general body surface, book gills or
    by gills.
    COMPOUND EYES OF AN ARTHROPOD
    RESPIRATORY SYSTEM OF A TERRESTRIAL INSECT
    INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF COCKROACH
    • The terrestrial Arthropods excrete through Malpighian tubules while
    the aquatic ones excrete through Green glands or coaxal glands.
    • Aquatic forms are ammoniotelic, terrestrial forms are uricotelic.
    • Nervous system with dorsal brain, double ventral nerve cord and
    segmentally arranged ganglia.
    • They contain sensory organs like hairs, antennae, simple and
    compound eyes, auditory organs and statocysts.
    • They are unisexual, sexual dimorphism is present.
    • Fertilization is either external or internal.
    • They are either oviparous or ovoviviparous.
    • Development is direct or indirect with larval stages.

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