arthropod

/ˈɑrθrəˌpɑd/

Other forms: arthropods

An arthropod is an animal with no internal spine, a body made of joined segments, and a hard covering, like a shell. Spiders are one type of arthropod.

Many different kinds of animals fall into the category known as arthropods, most of them insects or spiders, but also including crustaceans like shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. Their bodies are jointed and they have an exoskeleton, their hard outer covering. The Modern Latin root is Arthropoda, which is also the name of the animals' phylum, and which means "those with jointed feet."

Definitions of arthropod

1. noun

   invertebrate having jointed limbs and a segmented body with an exoskeleton made of chitin
   types:

   trilobite

   an extinct arthropod that was abundant in Paleozoic times; had an exoskeleton divided into three parts

   arachnid, arachnoid

   an arthropod with simple eyes and four pairs of legs

   myriapod

   general term for any terrestrial arthropod having an elongated body composed of many similar segments: e.g. centipedes and millipedes

   Scutigerella immaculata, garden centipede, garden symphilid, symphilid

   minute arthropod often infesting the underground parts of truck-garden and greenhouse crops

   tardigrade, water bear

   a microscopic animal with eight legs that lives in water or moss

   centipede

   a long, venomous insect-like creature having many body segments, each with many pairs of legs and belonging in the Arthropoda phylum

   millepede, milliped, millipede

   any of numerous herbivorous nonpoisonous arthropods having a cylindrical body of 20 to 100 or more segments most with two pairs of legs

   pycnogonid, sea spider

   any of various small spiderlike marine arthropods having small thin bodies and long slender legs

   Merostomata, class Merostomata

   used in some classifications; includes the orders Xiphosura and Eurypterida

   Limulus polyphemus, Xiphosurus polyphemus, horseshoe crab, king crab

   large marine arthropod of the Atlantic coast of North America having a domed carapace that is shaped like a horseshoe and a stiff pointed tail; a living fossil related to the wood louse

   Asian horseshoe crab

   horseshoe crab of the coast of eastern Asia

   eurypterid

   large extinct scorpion-like arthropod considered related to horseshoe crabs

   pentastomid, tongue worm

   wormlike arthropod having two pairs of hooks at the sides of the mouth; parasitic in nasal sinuses of mammals

   crustacean

   any mainly aquatic arthropod usually having a segmented body and chitinous exoskeleton

   onychophoran, peripatus, velvet worm

   any of numerous velvety-skinned wormlike carnivorous animals common in tropical forests having characteristics of both arthropods and annelid worms

   insect

   a small creature with six legs, three body fragments, two antennae, and usually wings belonging in the Arthropoda phylum

   instar

   an insect or other arthropod between molts

   Phalangium opilio, daddy longlegs, harvestman

   spiderlike arachnid with a small rounded body and very long thin legs

   scorpion

   a small arachnid with pincers and a stinging, poisonous tail found in warm, dry regions

   false scorpion, pseudoscorpion

   small nonvenomous arachnid resembling a tailless scorpion

   whip scorpion, whip-scorpion

   nonvenomous arachnid that resembles a scorpion and that has a long thin tail without a stinger

   spider

   predatory arachnid with eight legs, two poison fangs, two feelers, and usually two silk-spinning organs at the back end of the body; they spin silk to make cocoons for eggs or traps for prey

   acarine

   mite or tick

   Scutigera coleoptrata, house centipede

   long-legged centipede common in damp places as e.g. cellars

   malacostracan crustacean

   a major subclass of crustaceans

   decapod, decapod crustacean

   crustaceans characteristically having five pairs of locomotor appendages each joined to a segment of the thorax

   brachyuran

   typical crabs

   stomatopod, stomatopod crustacean

   a kind of crustacean

   branchiopod, branchiopod crustacean, branchiopodan

   aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding

   copepod, copepod crustacean

   minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish

   mussel shrimp, ostracod, seed shrimp

   tiny marine and freshwater crustaceans with a shrimp-like body enclosed in a bivalve shell

   barnacle, cirriped, cirripede

   marine crustaceans with feathery food-catching appendages; free-swimming as larvae; as adults form a hard shell and live attached to submerged surfaces

   Plicatoperipatus jamaicensis

   a kind of onychophoran

   social insect

   an insect that lives in a colony with other insects of the same species

   ephemeral, ephemeron

   anything short-lived, as an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form

   holometabola, metabola

   insects that undergo complete metamorphosis

   defoliator

   an insect that strips the leaves from plants

   pollinator

   an insect that carries pollen from one flower to another

   gallfly

   any of various insects that deposit their eggs in plants causing galls in which the larvae feed

   mecopteran

   any of various carnivorous insects of the order Mecoptera

   collembolan, springtail

   any of numerous minute wingless primitive insects possessing a special abdominal appendage that allows the characteristic nearly perpetual springing pattern; found in soil rich in organic debris or on the surface of snow or water

   proturan, telsontail

   any of several minute primitive wingless and eyeless insects having a cone-shaped head; inhabit damp soil or decaying organic matter

   beetle

   insect having biting mouthparts and front wings modified to form horny covers overlying the membranous rear wings

   web spinner

   any of a small order of slender typically tropical insects that nest in colonies in silken tunnels that they spin

   louse, sucking louse

   wingless usually flattened bloodsucking insect parasitic on warm-blooded animals

   bird louse, biting louse, louse

   wingless insect with mouth parts adapted for biting; mostly parasitic on birds

   flea

   any wingless bloodsucking parasitic insect noted for ability to leap

   dipteran, dipteron, dipterous insect, two-winged insects

   insects having usually a single pair of functional wings (anterior pair) with the posterior pair reduced to small knobbed structures and mouth parts adapted for sucking or lapping or piercing

   leaf miner, leaf-miner

   any of various small moths or dipterous flies whose larvae burrow into and feed on leaf tissue especially of the family Gracilariidae

   hymenopter, hymenopteran, hymenopteron, hymenopterous insect

   insects having two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor specialized for stinging or piercing

   worker

   sterile member of a colony of social insects that forages for food and cares for the larvae

   termite, white ant

   whitish soft-bodied ant-like social insect that feeds on wood

   orthopteran, orthopteron, orthopterous insect

   any of various insects having leathery forewings and membranous hind wings and chewing mouthparts

   phasmid, phasmid insect

   large cylindrical or flattened mostly tropical insects with long strong legs that feed on plants; walking sticks and leaf insects

   dictyopterous insect

   cockroaches and mantids

   bug

   general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate

   bug, hemipteran, hemipteron, hemipterous insect

   insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis

   heteropterous insect

   true bugs: insects whose forewings are membranous but have leathery tips

   homopteran, homopterous insect

   insects having membranous forewings and hind wings

   psocopterous insect

   small soft-bodied insect with chewing mouthparts and either no wings or two pairs

   ephemerid, ephemeropteran

   short-lived insect

   plecopteran, stone fly, stonefly

   primitive winged insect with a flattened body; used as bait by fishermen; aquatic gilled larvae are carnivorous and live beneath stones

   neuropteran, neuropteron, neuropterous insect

   insect having biting mouthparts and four large membranous wings with netlike veins

   odonate

   large primitive predatory aquatic insect having two pairs of membranous wings

   trichopteran, trichopteron, trichopterous insect

   caddis fly

   thysanuran insect, thysanuron

   primitive wingless insects: bristletail

   thysanopter, thysanopteron, thysanopterous insect

   an insect of the order Thysanoptera

   earwig

   any of numerous insects of the order Dermaptera having elongate bodies and slender many-jointed antennae and a pair of large pincers at the rear of the abdomen

   lepidopteran, lepidopteron, lepidopterous insect

   insect that in the adult state has four wings more or less covered with tiny scales

   pupa

   an insect in the inactive stage of development (when it is not feeding) intermediate between larva and adult

   imago

   an adult insect produced after metamorphosis

   queen

   the only fertile female in a colony of social insects such as bees and ants and termites; its function is to lay eggs

   type of:

   invertebrate

   any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification