Amazing Arthropods
Objectives
2) Identify phylum traits
3) Identify class traits
Background Information
Crayfish
Habitat: freshwater habitats
Predators: snapping turtles, bass
Prey: earthworm, dobsonfly
Adaptations: females store sperm until they're ready to lay eggs, four legs for walking on land
Grasshopper
Habitat: grass (wow!)
Predators: beetles, birds, lizards
Food: grasses, leaves, cereal crops
Adaptations: specialized third limbs to jump up to one meter to avoid predation
Anatomy and Lab:
Grasshopper Internal Anatomy
Grasshopper External Anatomy
Crayfish Anatomy
Arthropoda Cladogram:
System Focus:
Take a Breath as an Arthropod
Air enters the insect's body through valve-like openings in the exoskeleton called spiracles. They are located down the thorax and abdomen of most insects, and there is usually one pair of spiracles per body segment. Within each spiracle, air flow is regulated by small muscles with flap openings. Just like muscles, these flaps contract to close the spiracle and relax to open it.
After entering through the spiracle, air travels through the tracheal trunk and into tracheal tubes, which leads to the tracheole. The tracheole provides a thin, moist system for gases to exchange. Oxygen here first dissolves in the liquid of the tracheole and then dissolves into the cytoplasm of a nearby cell. At the same time, carbon dioxide is produced as a waste and leaves through the tracheal system.
Cross Content:
Human Impact
Taxonomy
Evolution
Interesting Facts
- arthropods have been on Earth for approximately 428 million years
- ancestral arthropods were the first land animals
- they comprise over 90% of the animal kingdom
- the word "arthropod" means jointed feet
Pundamental Arthropod Jokes
The centipede
What is on the ground and also a hundred feet in the air?
A centipede on its back
Identify the Arthropod
Bibliography
Works Cited
http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/mccauley/6a-labs-insects-orthoptera.htm
http://iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown/Zoology/Zoo%20Lectures/ArthropodaI1110.pdf
http://phsource.us/PH/ATAX/index.htm
http://sciencespot.net/Media/adinsjokes.pdf
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36943/arthropod/42366/Respiratory-system