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The arthropods are a phylum of animals with jointed legs; they include the insects, arachnids such as spiders, myriapods, and crustaceans. [1] Insects play many roles in culture including their direct use as food, [2] in medicine, [3] for dyestuffs, [4] and in science, where the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster serves as a model organism for work in genetics and developmental biology.
The intentional cultivation of insects and edible arthropods for human food is now emerging in animal husbandry as an ecologically sound concept. Several analyses have found insect farming to be a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional animal livestocking.
The eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults of certain insects have been eaten by humans from prehistoric times to the present day. [8] Around 3,000 ethnic groups practice entomophagy. [9] Human insect-eating (anthropo-entomophagy) is common to cultures in most parts of the world, including Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New ...
[2] [3] Because the full life cycles of both barnacles and geese were unknown at the time, (geese spend their breeding seasons in the Arctic) a folktale emerged that geese hatched from barnacles. It was not applied strictly to the arthropod until the 1580s. The ultimate meaning of the word is unknown. [3] [4]
However, the greatest contribution of arthropods to human food supply is by pollination: a 2008 study examined the 100 crops that FAO lists as grown for food, and estimated pollination's economic value as €153 billion, or 9.5 per cent of the value of world agricultural production used for human food in 2005. [153]
Likewise, the relationships between various arthropod groups are still actively debated. Today, arthropods contribute to the human food supply both directly as food, and more importantly, indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread severe disease to humans, livestock, and crops. (Full article...
Whether snipping, ripping or gripping, mandibles help arthropods get the job done, and mandibulates diversified so successfully that today they make up more than half of all animal species ...
Extant marine arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus to the Japanese spider crab. Arthropods' primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph - analogue of blood - circulates; they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the internal ...