Arachnida - spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks

There are over 60,000 known species in this order. Like most arthropods, arachnids have eight jointed legs and an exoskeleton. Arachnids have two sections to thier bodies - the prosoma and the opisthosoma. The promosa is the front part of the body. The promosa includes the arachnids head and thorax or cephalothorax. Arachnids have four pairs of walking legs, a pair of jointed jaws with fangs called the chelicerae, and a pair of antenna-like pedipalps. The opisthosoma is the rear half of the body and it has no appendages. Arachnids have no antennae. Many species of spiders spin webs that they use to trap prey. Scorpians are the largest members of the arachnid order. They have 6-12 appendages and a stinger at the end of their tail that they use to kill or paralyze their prey. Mites and ticks are parasites. They need a host to survive. They feed off of the blood and body fluids of their host.