Insects, General Applicable Terms

An organism that has jointed legs, a body divided into several parts, and a skeleton on the outside: Bees, dragonflies, beetles, and spiders are all arthropods.

The process by which a limb can be voluntarily shed if grabbed by a predator: Autotomy is found in spiders and grasshoppers, where the leg is shed by the sharp contraction of muscles acting on a special fracture point or area of weakness.

The use of natural predators, parasites, or disease organisms to reduce the number of pest insects or weed plants: Some insects were chewing up the leaves of Marys favorite plant, so she used a biological control method instead of using a chemical to kill the destructive insects.

The breathing area in some arachnids, resembling a book lung but on the outside of the body: A book gill is found in horseshoe crabs and is made up of membranous folds.

A terrestrial respiratory organ characteristic of arachnids, such as scorpions and primitive spiders: Each book lung consists of hollow flat plates and air goes over the outer surface of the plates and bodily fluid circulates within them, facilitating the exchange of gases.

In most species, adequate gas exchange occurs without any muscular movement to ventilate the lungs.

A specially-prepared space or structure in the nests of bees and wasps: Food can be stored in a brood cell, and eggs are laid in such a cell, and the larvae can complete their development in it.

A row of hairs on the back legs of certain spiders: The calamistra are used to comb out silk produced by the cribellum or spinnerets in some spiders, through which the emerging silk is combed.

"Spinnerets" are any of various tubular structures from which spiders and certain insect larvae, such as silkworms, secrete the silk threads from which they form webs or cocoons.

In colonies of social insects, any group of individuals which are structurally and/or behaviorally distinct and perform specialized tasks: Castes can be exemplified by the "soldiers" of termites and ants and the workers of hornets and honeybees.