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Mini-beasts are the insects and bugs that live around us.
Arachnids have:4
- eight walking legs
Locomotion:
Arachnids move using muscles attached to the inside of the exoskeleton to flex
their limbs.
Most arachnids, keep at least four legs on the surface while walking or running.
However spiders use hydraulic pressure to extend their legs.
Some spiders can jump 50 times their own height.
Because of this hydraulic pressure the legs of dead spiders curl up.
Spiders are ancient animals with a history going back many millions of years.
They have always been with us, an ancient source of fear and fascination.
They are abundant and widespread and are
natural controllers of insect populations.
Wherever you live, you're always close to a spider!
Insects play an essential role in the web of life.
They are an amazingly diverse group of animals that have conquered
almost every environment on earth.
Insects comprise 75% of all animal species that scientists have named and described, and most of these
insects have wings.
The key to insect success is their ability to survive on land and take to
the air.
Insects perform jobs that help humans.
Some of their jobs include pollinating flowering plants,
being a source of food for other animals
and assisting in the decomposition of
plants and animals.
Insects have:4
- Lateral compound eyes.
Compound eyes are different from human eyes which have a single lens for each eye.
Compound eyes have many lenses for each eye. For example, the fly has about 4,000 lenses in a single eye.
This provides them with very good eyesight.
Insects are the only Mini-beast that have learned how to fly!
They did this about 285 – 245 MILLION years ago.
Mollusc means 'soft-bodied’.
All molluscs have soft bodies on the inside, although some have developed a tough shell.
Locomotion:
As Myriapods or centipedes and millipedes move, its legs all move
in order down its body.
This makes it look like a 'wave' of movement that seems to travel
from one end to the other.
The walking legs stretch out sideways and prevent the
Myriapod falling over when it runs.
Centipedes have the first pair of legs behind the head modified into a pair of
fangs containing a poison gland.
Millipedes do not.
Many centipedes guard their eggs and young by curling around them,
while millipedes protect their eggs from predators in a nest of hard soil.
All crustaceans have:- a body divided into a head, thorax
and abdomen- two eyes
- two pairs of antennae- a hard exoskeleton- jointed, paired legs
(some crustaceans have up to 17 pairs of legs).
Locomotion:
Crustaceans that live in the water have paddles on their back legs. This
is what makes them able to swim.
Crustaceans don’t usually move straight forward when on land.
They use walking legs which are on the backside of their body.
This makes crustaceans walk either right or left instead of forward.
One side of the back legs helps pull the crab, and the others stretch out
and push.
Although originally aquatic, many crustaceans, such as slaters and
beachhoppers, are adapted to life on land.
Aboriginal People of coastal Sydney collected and ate many different
types of shellfish and crustaceans.
In Botany Bay when Captain Cook first landed in Australia he saw the
Aborigines collecting shellfish.
Annelids are invertebrates.
This means they do not have a back bone.
They are soft and squishy.They are long.
They have no legs.
Annelids have:
- Long cylindrical shaped bodies made up of many similar segments
- No antennae - No obvious head end
Worms play an important part in all the ecosystems of the world.
Several other worms may be free-living, or nonparasitic.
Some worms living in the ground help to
condition the soil while others thrive as parasites
of plants and animals, including humans.