CLASS ARACHNIDA

- One of the two extremely successful terrestrial arthropod taxa

- Includes all living terrestrial chelicerates
- Includes Scorpiones (scorpions), Palpigradi (palpigrades or microwhip scorpions), Uropygi (whip
scorpions or vinegaroons, and schizomids), Aranae (spiders), Amblypygi (amblypygids),
Pseudoscorpiones (false scorpions), Solifugae (solifuges or solpugids), Opiliones (harvestmen or
daddy longlegs), Ricinulei (ricinuleids or tick spiders), and Acari (mites and ticks)
- Morphological modifications:
o Waxy epicuticle to reduce water loss
o Arachnid book lungs and tracheae
o Appendages adapted for terrestrial locomotion
FORM
- Body divided into two tagmata: anterior cephalothorax and posterior abdomen
- Carapace dorsally covers unsegmented cephalothorax
- Cephalothorax appendages
NUTRITION
- Carnivores (except harvestmen and some mites)
- Digestion occurs at preoral cavity
GAS EXCHANGE
- Either book lungs or tracheae
- Invaginations of the exoskeleton into the hemocoel
- Some rely only on cutaneous gas exchange (palpigrades and some mites)
1. Book Lungs
o Sclerotized invaginations of integument lined with cuticle
o Evolved from book gills
o Present today only in scorpions, spiders, amblypygids, and uropygids
2. Tracheae
o Invaginations of integument lined with cuticle
o Conserves water better than book lungs
o Best developed in small arachnids
o Two types of tracheae:
Sieve tracheae
Found in a few spiders, pseudoscorpions, and ricinuleids
Tube tracheae
Found in harvestmen, most spiders, mites, and solifuges
INTERNAL TRANSPORT
- Heart
- Blood is oxygenated by book lungs or tracheae
- Arachnids with book lungs contain the pigment hemocyanin in their blood
EXCRETION
- Rely on guanine, adenine, xanthine, or uric acid
- Nontoxic, highly insoluble, and require very little water
- Nephrocytes
- Excretory organs can either be:
1. Saccate nephridia or coxal glands
o Inherited from aquatic ancestors
o Derived from coelomic sacs
o Ducts opening on the coxae of cephalothoracic segments
2. Malphigian tubules
o Arise from the midgut

o
3. Both

Endodermal

NERVOUS SYSTEM
- Highly cephalized central nervous system (CNS)
- Concentrated ganglia in cephalothorax
SENSE ORGANS
- 3 common sense organs:
o Sensory setae
Mechanoreceptors- responds to touch or sound
Chemoreceptors- responds to chemical stimuli
Trichobothria- detects weak air movements (e.g. allows blind spider to detect and
capture flies)
- present also in insects
o Eyes
3-5 small eyes
Highly modified ommatidia
May have lateral eyes, median eyes, both, or neither
o Slit sense organs
Locomotion
Detect changes in tension on the exoskeleton due to deformation
May also respond to gravity and vibrations
- Lacks antennae on first head segment
- Telson functions as posterior antenna
REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
- Gonochoric
- Internal fertilization
- Copulatory penis for direct transfer of sperm
- Spermatophores for indirect transfer of sperm (most arachnids)
o Original mode
o Adaptation for land reproduction
- Courtship ritual
- Mostly oviparous, some viviparous
EURYPTERIDA (extinct)
- Aquatic euchelicerates during the Ordovician to Permian
- Largest arthropods ever
o Pterygotus almost 3 meters in length
- Similar to modern scorpions
o Tagmosis
BODY
- Two tagmata: cephalothorax and abdomen
- carapace
- cephalothorax smaller than abdomen
- capable of swimming and crawling at the bottom
- abdominal segments not fused
- seven-segmented preabdomen; 5 pairs of gills; no genital operculum
- narrower five-segmented postabdomen; no appendages; tail spine (poisonous in some)
SOURCES:
Ruppert EE, Fox RS, Barnes RB. Invertebrate Zoology, A functional evolutionary approach, 9 th ed.

http://lanwebs.lander.edu/faculty/rsfox/invertebrates/thelyphonus.html last accessed Sept. 3, 2015

photos from google images

QUESTION: What order under class arachnida is extinct?

ANSWER: Eurypterida