Class Arachnida (Spiders, Mites and Relatives)

Domain: EucaryaKingdom: AnimaliaPhylum: Arthropoda Class Phenology

Orders of the Class Arachnida Discovered in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Order Common Name Photo Example Where? Phenology
AcariformesMites HerePhenology
Acari_orderMites(NA) HerePhenology
Arachnida_orderArachnids(NA) HerePhenology
AraneaeSpiders HerePhenology
AstigmataFeather Mites(NA) HerePhenology
IxodidaTicks HerePhenology
OpilionesHarvestmen or Daddy Longlegs HerePhenology
PseudoscorpionesPseudoscorpions HerePhenology
ScorpionesScorpions HerePhenology
TrombidiformesTerrestrial mites HerePhenology

Can't find the orders you are looking for? Note:
Orders on this list are only those contained in the ATBI database,
and do not neccessarily include all Park orders from historic park reports, literature,
or other sources that have not yet been entered in the Biodiversity Database.
Also note: where the order name ends with '_order', it means that the order
name has not yet been agreed upon by taxonomists for this group,
or that it was not identified to this level.

In Case You Didn't Know ...
Arachnids are 8 legged critters that are related to insects. The "poster child" of the class Arachnida is the spider; but other species include various mites, ticks, scorpions and pseudoscorpions.
Before DLIA's research we only knew of 258 species of Arachnids in the Smokies. Now, we have a total of 855! 87 are completely new to science and 510 are new records in the Smokies!
The Class Arachnida is known by the following characteristics. Most have eight legs in the adult lifestage (exception of a few mites). two further appendages are the chelicerae (for feeding or defense), and the pedipalps (for feeding, locomotion, and/or reproduction). Other characteristics that set them apart from insects are the following. The absence of antenna and wings. Two body segments: cephalothorax (fusion of head and thorax) and abdomen. Like the insects, they also have an exoskeleton.


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