Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Thoracic segment with 3 pairs of jointed legs
- 3 major body regions – head, thorax, abdomen
Class: Insecta
- Three major body regions: head, thorax, abdomen
- Zero, one, or two pairs of wings
- Six legs
- Usually one pair of antennae, often highly reduced
Order Isopoda: Woodlice and Pillbugs
Order Odonata: Dragonflies and Damselflies
Order Orthoptera: Grasshoppers and Crickets
Dragonflies
- 2 pairs of wings
- Long, thin abdomen
- Large eyes occupying majority of head
- Hold wings flat at rest
- Often are larger, with more robust body
Order Coleoptera: Beetles
- Hind legs modified for jumping
- Two pairs of wings, hind wings folded beneath front wings
- Chewing mouthparts
Order Hemiptera: “True Bugs”
Damselflies
- Two pairs of wings
- Membranous hind wings folded beneath hardened front wings (elytra)
- Chewing mouthparts
- Varied antenna shapes
- Hold wings together above body at rest
- Smaller, with more slender body
Grasshopper
Characteristics
- Front wings with upper leathery portion and lower membranous portion
- Hind wings membranous, beneath front wings at rest
- Piercing-sucking mouthparts
More Hemiptera!
Order Homoptera: Planthoppers, Cicadas, Aphids
Butterflies
Order Decapoda: Crayfish, Crabs, Lobsters, Shrimp
Order Lepidoptera: Butterflies and Moths
- Two pairs of wings, held roof-like over body at rest
- Antennae often short
- Piercing-sucking mouthparts
- Clubbed antennae
- Usually day flying
- Finer scales
- Slender bodies
Order Hymenoptera: Bees, Wasps, Ants
Moths
- Two pairs of wings
- Wings covered with scales, come off as a dusty powder when handled
- Coiled proboscis for reaching nectar deep within flowers
- Feathery antennae
- Often (but not always!) night flying
- Denser scales, appear “fuzzier”
- Stout bodied
Bees vs. Flies
Order Diptera: Flies
Bees
- One pair of wings, usually clear
- Hind wings reduced to halteres, knobbed structures used for balance during flight
- Large eyes
Wasps
- Two pairs of wings, usually clear
- Some without wings
- Abdomen attached to thorax by thin waist
- Often have stinger or ovipositor (egg laying tube) at end of abdomen
- Rounded, segmented body
- Seven pairs of legs
- Antennae
- May have feelers at end of abdomen
- Many species roll into a ball for defense
Ants
- Five pairs of legs
- Front three used for feeding
- Often one pair of legs in modified into pincers
Subphylum Crustacea
- Biramous limbs (consisting of two parts)
- Three major body regions – head, thorax, abdomen
Subphylum: Myriapoda
- Numerous body segments
- Most segments with one or two pairs of jointed legs
- One pair of antennae
Class: Diplopoda: Millipedes
Class: Chilopoda: Centipedes
- Many segments with two pairs of legs on each
- Usually 100 to 300 legs
- Often have rounded bodies, but can be flattened
- Many curl into characteristic defensive posture
- Many segmented, flattened body form
- One pair of legs per segment
- Usually have long antennae and venomous jaws
- Predatory
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Order Opiliones: Harvestmen
- Two major body regions: cephalothorax and abdomen
- Mouthparts: appendages called chelicerae
- Eight long, jointed legs
- Appears to have one round or oval body region
- Non-venomous
- Don’t spin webs
Order Araneae: Spiders
- Two body segments
- Abdomen - unsegmented
- Cephalothorax – consists of head and attachment point for legs
- Eight legs
Order Pseudoscorpiones
- Look similar to scorpions with no stinger
- 8 walking legs
- 2 large claw-like pedipalps
Order Acari: Mites and Ticks
- Eight short legs, highly reduced in some parasitic species
- Small head, sometimes with visible sucking mouthparts
- Some common species of mites are red or orange
Thank You!
What is an arthropod?
Discover Life in America's
Questions?
The Phylum arthropoda includes a great diversity of organisms from horseshoe crabs to flies and beetles to scorpions. The term “arthropod” means “jointed foot”. Arthropods are invertebrates with hard exoskeletons, segmented bodies, and many paired legs. Due to the hardened exoskeleton, the legs must be jointed for movement to be possible.
Photo Sources:
Rebecca Shiflett
Crayfish:
http://www.nps.gov/grsm/photosmultimedia/Wildlife.htm
Unknown Photographer
Orb Weaver:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orb_weaver_black_bckgrnd03_crop.jpg
Mehran Moghtadai
Harvestman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harvestmen_Close_Macro.jpg
Rutgers Landscape & Nursery
Stinkbug, Stinkbug 2:
http://rutgers-leslie.blogspot.com/2010/09/stink-bugs-on-rise.html
Gladson Machado
Housefly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Closeup_of_House_fly.JPG
Alice Russell
Butterfly:
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/butterflies/butterfly_index.html
Khew SK
Butterfly Proboscis, 1- 5:
http://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2008/06/butterfly-proboscis.html
Gene Hanson
Damselfly, Dragonfly eyes, Dragonfly at rest, Sphinx moth, Milkweed bugs, Cicada 2, Grasshopper 2, Grasshopper wings, Bee fly, Bee fly 2, Fly, Crab spider, Wasp 2, Bumblebee 1-2, Pollen sacs 1-2, Bee covered in pollen, Beetle 2, Skipper, Butterfly 2, Pipevine swallowtail 1-2, Rosette Skimmer, Spider, Proboscis 6, Grasshopper leg, ladybug:
http://www.genehanson.com/
Graham Montgomery
Wasp 3, Treehopper, Leaf footed bug mouthparts, Firefly 2, Weevil, Moth 2, Water Strider, Harvestman with mites, Mite, Pseudoscorpion, Crawdad, Millipede, Jumping spider, Grasshopper 4, Cricket, Moth 3, Ants 1-3, Crane fly, Mosquito, Cicada 3, Aphid, Damselfly 3:
http://www.pbase.com/gmontgomery
Meng Meng
Water strider 2:
http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Asia/Thailand/photo154910.htm
Tom Murray
American dog tick
Joyce Gross
Dog ticks
Tony DiTerlizzi
Dog tick:
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/american_dog_tick.htm
Stanislav Krejčík
Pill bug:
http://eol.org/pages/7230/overview
Bryan Nowak
Millipede 2:
http://www.gadoodles.com/images/Smokies-2011-04-13/Animals/Centipede/index.htm
B. Newton
Millipede 3:
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/relatives/millipedes/millipede.htm#spiro
Jonathan Francisco
Crayfish 2:
http://www.biol.andrews.edu/everglades/organisms/invertebrates/arthropods/pond_crayfish/pond_crayfish.html
Eric Guinther:
Centipede:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Centipede.jpg
Unknown Photographer:
Centipede 2:
http://dailylinked.blogspot.com/2008/11/giant-centipede-found-while-eating-bat.html
Basic Arthropod Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Biodiversity, DLIA, and the ATBI
Biodiversity is the variety of life in an ecosystem. Levels of biodiversity help indicate how healthy an ecosystem is, and they help understand the effects on humans as well. Resources such as clean air, fertile soil, and clean water are all connected directly to the ecosystem and its biodiversity. Diversity is important to human life in ways not easily seen nor easily understood, and biodiversity is needed for humans and all other life on this planet to subsist.
Biodiversity includes all types of life forms from plants to animals, and with estimates as high as 80,000 species in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP) it is something we know is important.
It is because of this that DLIA works with scientists and volunteers from around the world to coordinate the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI). The title explains it all, an all inclusive inventory of the Taxa, all the biological groups and families known and unknown in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park!