General features

Size range

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Most arthropods are small animals. Only aquatic forms are able to attain substantial sizes, because their bodies are supported in part by the surrounding water. The extinct chelicerate Eurypterida, for example, reached a length of 1.8 metres (5.9 feet), and some modern spider crabs may weigh up to 6.4 kilograms (14 pounds) and span 3.8 metres or more. Terrestrial arthropods do not grow very large. The largest adult insects and spiders do not weigh more than 100 grams (0.22 pound); however, there is evidence that larvae of Megasoma actaeon, a type of rhinoceros beetle, can sometimes exceed 200 grams (0.44 pound). The beetle Goliathus regius measures 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) in length and 10 centimetres in width, while the butterfly Ornithoptera victoriae of the Solomon Islands has a wing span exceeding 30 centimetres (about 1 foot). One of the longest insects is the phasmid (walkingstick) Phryganistria chinensis, a specimen of which measured 62.4 centimetres (about 2 feet) in length. The phasmid Phobaeticus chani reaches a length of more than 30 centimetres. The smallest arthropods include some parasitic wasps, beetles of the family Ptiliidae, and mites that are less than 0.25 millimetre (0.01 inch) in length, despite their complex structures.

Distribution and abundance

Arthropods are found in almost all of the habitats that cover the Earth’s surface. Minute copepods (typically less than 1 millimetre long) are among the most abundant animals on Earth, especially in marine surface waters. Many other crustaceans live in the sea at depths exceeding 4,000 metres (around 13,100 feet), while the insect collembolans and jumping spiders have been found on Mount Everest at heights exceeding 6,700 metres (around 22,000 feet). Collembolans and the oribatid mites are among the permanent inhabitants of Antarctica. Brine shrimp are found in some saltwater lakes, and beetles, mites, and various crustaceans have been taken from hot springs. Minute crustaceans inhabit underground waters in many parts of the world, and deserts support a large arthropod fauna, especially insects and arachnids. Arthropods are the only invertebrates capable of flight.

The numbers and diversity of arthropods are enormous. A bag filled with leaf mold from a forest floor, for example, will contain hundreds of arthropods, including mites, spiders, false scorpions, myriapods, a great variety of insects, and crustacean pill bugs. In the spring a temporary pool often teems with minute crustaceans.

Importance

Arthropods are of great direct and indirect importance to humans. The larger crustaceans—shrimps, lobsters, and crabs—are used as food throughout the world. Small planktonic crustaceans, such as copepods, water fleas, and krill, are a major link in the food chain between the photosynthetic phytoplankton and the larger carnivores, such as many fish and whales. Although many species of insects and mites attack food crops and timber, arthropods are of enormous benefit to human agriculture. Approximately two-thirds of all flowering plants are pollinated by insects, and soil and leaf-mold arthropods, which include insects, mites, myriapods, and some crustaceans (pill bugs), play an important role in the formation of humus from decomposed leaf litter and wood.

The stings and bites of arthropods may be irritating or painful, but very few inject dangerous toxins. Medically, arthropods are more significant as carriers of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue, and elephantiasis (via mosquitos), African sleeping sickness (via tsetse flies), typhus fever (via lice), bubonic plague (via fleas), and Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease (via ticks). Many diseases of domesticated animals are also transmitted by arthropods.