![]() Ticks climb up on grass and brush along trails, spreading their legs like grappling hooks to latch on to the fur or clothing of hosts walking nearby. Sun spiders use lightning speed and their massive mouthparts to outrun and tear apart prey. Pseudoscorpions (SOU-doh-skor-pee-uhns) lack a stinger, but they have claws with poison glands that drip venom into the wounds of their victims. Scorpions use their claws to capture and kill prey, or else they kill them with a venomous sting. Others ambush their prey and overpower them with their strong legs before biting them. Some spiders trap their victims in silken webs and kill them with a poisonous bite. They engage in an amazing variety of activity to obtain food. Most arachnids live alone, except during the mating season. The fluids are then sucked through the mouth and into the body. They pierce tissues with their mouthparts and inject them with digestive chemicals, turning them into fluids. Unable to chew, most arachnids must first digest their food outside their bodies. Some mites take the fluids and tissues of plants and funguses. Many ticks and mites are parasites, meaning that they feed on the blood and tissue fluids of their victims without necessarily killing them. DIETĪrachnids attack and kill small animals, especially insects and their relatives, and then feed on their body fluids. HABITATĪrachnids live on land, in nearly every sort of habitat. ![]() About eight thousand of the ninety-seven thousand species of arachnids are found in the United States and Canada. GEOGRAPHIC RANGEĪrachnids are found throughout the world. Whip scorpions have a bristly and sensitive whiplike tail on the tip of the abdomen, and scorpions have comblike structures underneath the abdomen, used to detect vibrations. Some arachnids have additional sensory equipment on their abdomens. Some arachnids have fingerlike projections on their abdomens, used to produce silk in spiders these structures are called spinnerets. The other three pairs of legs are used for walking and digging, as well as for capturing prey. The first pair is sometimes not used for walking at all and is used instead as feelers, or antennae. The legs often have bristles (brih-SUHLS), or short, stiff hairs, that can sense vibrations (vie-BRAY-shuns). Adult arachnids all have four pairs of legs. Arachnids also have a small set of leglike structures, called pedipalps, attached to either side of the mouth in some arachnids these are used to cut and crush food, and, in others, they serve as antennae. The mouthparts are sometimes used as fangs to inject venom, or poison, and digestive chemicals into the wounds of their prey. They are used to capture and chew prey, or food animals. In ticks, mites, and most spiders the abdomen is usually smooth, without any segments, but in all other arachnids the abdomen is plainly divided into segments.Īrachnids have mouthparts that look like small pinchers. The front region of arachnids is covered by a carapace (KARE-a-pays), a smooth, shieldlike plate, which in some arachnids, such as harvestmen and sun spiders, is divided into three parts. In some arachnids, such as mites and harvestmen, the two body parts are closely joined together to form a single region the two parts cannot easily be seen as different from each other. While arachnids all have these two body parts, some have narrow waists, and others have thick waists. ![]() ![]() Despite these differences, many adult arachnids have two distinct body regions: the front portion, a sort of head area combined with a thorax, or midsection, contains the mouthparts and six sets of paired, leglike limbs, and the second portion, the abdomen, has a stomach, reproductive opening, and lunglike structures or breathing tubes. Among the many members of this group are ticks and mites, scorpions, spiders, and even the common harvestman, also known as daddy longlegs-all with their own distinct appearance. SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, MITES, AND TICKS: Arachnida HAIR FOLLICLE (FAH-LIH-KUHL) MITE ( Demodex folliculorum): SPECIES ACCOUNTS ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOOD TICK ( Dermacentor andersoni): SPECIES ACCOUNTS TAILLESS WHIP SCORPION ( Phrynus parvulus): SPECIES ACCOUNTS COMMON HARVESTMAN ( Phalangium opilio): SPECIES ACCOUNTS ZEBRA JUMPING SPIDER ( Salticus scenicus): SPECIES ACCOUNTS LONG-BODIED CELLAR SPIDER ( Pholcus phalangioides): SPECIES ACCOUNTS BOOK SCORPION ( Chelifer cancroides): SPECIES ACCOUNTS CAMEL SPIDER ( Galeodes arabs): SPECIES ACCOUNTS GIANT WHIP SCORPION ( Mastigoproctus giganteus): SPECIES ACCOUNTS EMPEROR SCORPION ( Pandinus imperator): SPECIES ACCOUNTS PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICSĪrachnids (uh-RAK-nihds) are related to sea spiders and horseshoe crabs.
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