Lecture 3-4.

Phylum Arthropoda
Dr. Ir. Max Rudolf Muskananfola, M.Sc.
 Arthropods-General
• includes: crabs, crawfish, shrimp, spiders,
scorpions, mites, ticks, millipedes, centipedes,
insects (dragonflies, butterflies, ants, wasps,
beetles, etc)
• 1,100,000 known species;
• at least 2-3 M more species
• more species in this phylum than in ANY phylum
of ANY kingdom of life
• half of all known species of every kingdom of life
• includes 2/3rds of all known animals
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• more widely distributed over the earth than any other
animal phylum
• live in virtually every habitat on earth
• common in all terrestrial, freshwater and marine
habitats
• Distinctive Characteristics of Arthropods
• 1. “jointed legs”
• the only invertebrate with this trait
• 2. hard (sclerotized) exoskeleton of chitin completely
covers body
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• excellent for protection
• also waterproof, good for life on land
• 3. segmented body
• allows infinite possibilities for adaptive
modifications
• 4. well developed head (cephalization)
• with numerous sense organs
• antennae & compound eyes are characteristic
sense organs of arthropods
• brain (ganglia)
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• 5. several pairs of jointed feeding appendages
• 6. very active and energetic animals
• most active invertebrate group
• can walk, jump, burrow, fly
• some can fly over 30 mph
• some can run up to 10 mph
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• Arthropods are one of the most ancient phyla with many
fossils
• polychaetes (annelids) and arthropods probably arose from
a common ancestor over 600 M years ago
• one of the few animal phyla that existed before the
Cambrian explosion
• shortly after the Cambrian explosion arthropods quickly
became the dominant life forms and have dominated the
fossil record since
• one of the oldest animal species on earth (has remained
unchanged) is Triops cancriformis
• 180 M yrs requires no males
 Tadpole Shrimp (Triops cancriformis)

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 Tadpole Shrimp (Triops cancriformis)

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• many unusual forms now long extinct
• in terms of numbers of individuals:
• 200 M individual arthropods for every
person on earth
• most <6 mm (1/4”) long
• largest: Japanese crab 19’ (5.79 M), 40lbs (18kg)
• smallest: mite <0.1 mm
• tremendous economic importance to humans
food
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• pollination
• drugs, dyes, silk, honey, wax
• crop pests
• vectors of disease
• were the first animals to move onto land
• Silurian 420 MY ago
• were the 1 st animals to fly
• 150 MY before flying reptiles, birds, bats
• insects 330 MY; Carboniferous
• pterosaurs 170 MY; late Jurassic
• birds 150 MY; (coexisted with pterosaurs
• for ~90 MY)
• bats ~40 MY; late Eocene
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• opened up a whole new set of ecosystems and habitats
• before anything else began to compete for the same
resources
• allowed wide and rapid distribution and dissemination
across the globe
• Arthropod Body Plan
• segmented body
• allows infinite possibilities for adaptive modifications
• most with head, thorax and abdomen
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• lots of fusion of segments into a variety of
body plans:
• cephalothorax & abdomen
• head & trunk
• head -thorax -abdomen
• paired jointed appendages
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• arthropods are the only invertebrates with
jointed appendages
• also highly adaptable to suit animals lifestyle:
• Sensory : antennae, palps
• locomotion : walking, climbing, swimming,
flying
• feeding : mandibles, chelicerae, etc
• reproduction
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• Body Wall
• body is completely covered with hard exoskeleton
• also folds into mouth and anus to form lining of foregut
and hindgut
• cuticle also lines tracheae
• main component is chitin(a starch) but much thicker
than the thin flexible chitin of previous animal phyla
• chitin is further hardened with proteins and calcium
deposits
• exoskeleton is secreted by epidermis (=hypodermis in
arthropods)
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• structure:
• epicuticle: hardened (= sclerotized) protein with
waxy
• surface for waterproofing
• procuticle: thick outer layer of chitin above a
thinner inner layer that remains thin and flexible
• some crustaceans (eg. lobsters & crabs) have a
much thicker and stronger procuticle
• often impregnated with Calcium salts
• greatly increases its strength
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• exoskeleton is often highly colored:
• camoflage
• recognition
• warning
• various microscopic canals run through cuticle and open to outside:
• pore canals !calcium salts for sclerotization in crustacea
• wax canals !secrete waxy covering for water proofing
• dermal gland ducts !unknown function
• the exoskeleton also contains various folds, flaps and
• spines:
• exoskeleton consists of many hardened plates with flexible hinges
between
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• areas where cuticle hasn’t been hardened
• muscles are attached to fingerlike inner
• extensions of skeleton (=apodemes)
• !when muscle pulls it moves part
• eg. lobster closes claws
• some parts modified for feeding
• also structures for respiration, swimming &
mating
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• many spines act as tactile organs (touch)
• with the advantages of this exoskeleton it has
one major drawback:
• animals can’t grow without shedding and
regrowing a larger exoskeleton
• Molting
• the problem is solved by molting
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• a complex process requiring environmental factors and
the interaction of various hormones includes actual
shedding of old cuticle
• = ecdysis
• eg. insects go through a fixed # of molts till
• adulthood, then they don’t molt anymore
• eg. spiders & some crustaceans molt indefinite # of
times throughout their lives
• a. molting is usually initiated by environmental cuesor
a buildup of pressure in the body causes the release of
molting hormone (=ecdysone)
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• b. triggers epidermis to secrete enzymes
• (proteases and chitinases) that digest and
• dissolve the inner layers of old cuticle
• (procuticle) and it separates from body wall
• c. epidermis secretes new procuticle
• d. arthropod inflates itself with air or fluid to
• crack the old skin (at fracture lines)
• e. animal extricates itself from old cuticle
• animal is especially vulnerable at this point
• eg. soft shell crab must also shed lining of intestine
• and tracheae at same time
• f. animal inflates itself and allows new cuticle to harden
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• Movement
• virtually every form of animal movement is
found in arthropods:
• walking, running, crawling, burrowing,
swimming, flying, etc
• arthropods have a very complex muscular
system
• the jointed plates of the body and legs provide
attachment point for muscles
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• similar to muscle bundles that move our bones
• insects have more muscles than most animals
including us
• eg. humans have ~700 individual muscles; some
insects have 900 or more muscle organs; some
caterpillars have 4,000
• also, layers of muscles surround internal organs
• both striated and smooth muscle fibers
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• Feeding & Digestion
• virtually every mode of feeding: carnivores,
herbivores, omnivores, parasites
• arthropods typically have 4-6 pairs of feeding
appendages near their mouth
• two main types of feeding appendages:
• chelicerae !pinchers or fangs
• mandibles !jawlike
• with numerous accessory structures
• well developed complete digestive tract:
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• mouth -esophagus -stomach -intestine –anus
• with specialized areas for grinding and storing
and absorbing food
• accessory glands that secrete enzymes and
digestive juices
• efficient areas for absorption of nutrients
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• Respiration
• need some kind of respiratory system since waxy
• cuticle is impermeable to air
• arthropods use a variety of respiratory systems
• lots of different kinds depending on habitat
• eg. gills in most aquatic species such as crustaceans and aquatic
insect larvae and nymphs
• thin feathery structures or flat sheets of tissue
• eg. book gills in some chelicerates extend from abdomen like pages
of a book
• eg. lungs protected internal chamber for air breathing arthropods
• thin walls of chamber allow exchange of gasses with body fluids
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• eg. book lungs
• several hollow internal folds; reverse of book lungs
• able to work in air like book lungs work in water
• eg. trachea
• all terrestrial arthropods use this system for respiration
• is a system of branching tubules that delivers oxygen
directly to tissues
• O2 doesn’t need to travel in blood
• allows for high metabolism if insects doesn’t limit body
siz
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• insect tracheal system was an excellent
• method to get lots of oxygen to muscle tissues
• preadaptation to flight
• Circulation
• arthropods have a simple open circulatory
system
• coelom becomes haemocoel filled with blood
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• as in most molluscs
• has dorsal heartand blood vessels
• dorsal blood vessel with paired ostiain each
segment
• blood flows anteriorly in dorsal vessel
• out into segments and circulates around
organs and back to dorsal vessel
• no capillaries
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• blood of most arthropods contains pigments
to carry oxygen:
• eg. hemocyanin !bluish pigment with Copper
• eg. hemoglobin !red pigment containing Iron
• Nervous System
• similar to annelids:
• dorsal brain and double nerve cord with
paired ganglia in each segment
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• still relatively simple, doesn’t do a lot of
processing
• eg. cockroach can survive 30-40 days without
a head but much better developed sense
organs
• 1. Eyes
• a. simple eyes= ocelli
• !can detect only light vs dark
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• b. compound eyes
• with many individual lenses = facets
• provide a wide field of view and particularly
• good at detecting movement
• 2. Antennae
• tactile & chemical sensations
• 3. Chemoreceptors
• in addition to being on antennae, can be found on
• almost any body surface
• eg. many insects have chemoreceptors on their feet
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• 4. Tactile Hairs & spines
• equivalent to our sense of touch
• 5. Statocysts
• for balance
• the more elaborate nevous sytem with senseorgans
• allows for some of the more complex invertebrate
• behaviors
• still mostly reflex, but with some learning
• second only to cephalopods complexity
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• Excretion
• arthropods have a variety of efficient
excretory systems to: remove excretory wastes
• also prevents excessive water loss on land
• antennal glands excretory organs at the base
of antennae in crustaceans used to regulate
salt balance
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• malpighian tubulesare excretory organs unique to
• Arachnids and Hexapods
• branch from hindgut or rectum
• collects salts and wastes and drains into the
intestine
• coxal glands modified nephridia at base of legs in
some chelicerates
• in some aquatic species nitrogen wastes are
excreted through skin or through gills
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• Reproduction and Development
• mostly dioecious
• lots of variation in developmental stages often quite
complex
• eg. larva !metamorphosis !adult
• larvae = caterpillars, grubs, maggots
• eg. nymph !juvenile !adult
• eg. some aquatic forms with free swimming larval
stage = nauplius
• often with complete change in feeding and lifestyles
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• eg. aquatic larva vs terrestrial adult
• a few groups reproduce parthenogenetically
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Origin & Evolution of Arthropods
• arthropods show many similarities to certain
segmented worms
• most believe annelids, molluscs and arthropods are
related
• soft cuticle of a segmented worm was hardened by
deposits of additional proteins and calcium
• the hard sections of cuticle were still separated from
each other by flexible sutures and joints
• !provided protection from predators & environmental
hazards
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• provided more secure site for attachment of
muscles
• parts of hard exoskeleton became pivots and
levers for jointed appendages
• new appendages provided much more rapid
locomotion than hydrostatic skeleton of pastas
coelom became less useful for movement it
became more important for circulation
• became a haemocoel
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• arthropods share many similarities with annelids:
• 1. metamerism with tendency for segments to
become specialized
• 2. similar nervous system with paired ganglia in
each segment
• 3. some have same type of excretory system
• 4. spiral cleavage in primitive members
• 5. mesoderm derived from 4D blastomere
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• differences from annelids:
• 1. arthropods have hardened exoskeleton
• 2. undergo ecdysis
• 3. loss of coelom and evolution of haemocoel
• 4. developed open circulatory system and
heart with a pair of ostia in each segment
• 5. eggs are centrolecithal
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Classification
• because of the diversity of arthropods:
• classification is complex and difficult
• it is difficult to generalize about various body systems
• even taxonomists have not reached consensus on the
classification and evolutionary relationships between
some group
• Major Subphyla:
• There are 4 main kinds of living Arthropods (plus one
extinct group we will discuss)
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1. Trilobites (4,000 species)
• all extinct, mostly marine
2. Myriopods (14,000 species)
• “many feet” centipedes and millipedes, mostly terrestrial
• distinct head with mandibles & 1 pr antennae
• many similar segments
3. Chelicerates (74,000 species)
• spiders, crabs, ticks, mites, scorpions
• ancient group, mostly terrestrial
• chelicerae and pedipalps for feeding
• no antennae, cephalothorax
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4. Crustacea (67,000 species)
• shrimp, crab, barnacles, crayfish
• mostly marine
• a few freshwater and terrestrial forms
• mandibles, 2 prs antennae
• many appendages & many different kinds of
appendages
• cephalothorax
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5. Hexapoda (>1,100,000 species)
• most successful animal group
• 87% of all arthropods
• 62% of all animals
• 50% of all life on earth
• mostly terrestrial
• a few freshwater, hardly any marine
• distinct head with mandibles & 1 pr antennae
• body consist of head, thorax and abdomen
• 3 prs of legs, most with 2 prs of wings
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• Terima Kasih