Microwhip

Palpigradi                                                        
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Palpigrade, commonly known as a microwhip scorpion, is an invertebrate animal belonging to the order Palpigradi in the class Arachnida, in the subphylum Chelicerata of the phylum Arthropoda.

Description

Palpigrades are tiny cousins of the uropygids, or whip scorpions, no more than 3 millimeters (0.12 in) in length, and averaging 1–1.5 mm (0.04–0.06 in). They have a thin, pale, segmented integument, and a segmented abdomen that terminates in a whip-like flagellum. This is made up of 15 segment-like parts, or "articles", and may make up as much as half the animal's length.Each article of the flagellum bears bristles, giving the whole flagellum the appearance of a bottle brush. The carapace is divided into two plates between the third and fourth leg pair of legs. They have no eyes.

As in some other arachnids, the first pair of legs are modified to serve as sensory organs, and are held clear of the ground while walking. Unusually, however, palpigrades use their pedipalps for locomotion, so that the animal appears to be walking on five pairs of legs. Some palpigrades have three pairs of abdominal lung-sacs, although these are not true book lungs as there is no trace of the characteristic leaflike lamellae which defines book lungs. However, many species have no respiratory organs at all and breathe directly through the cuticle.

Ecology and Behavior

Species of Palpigradi live in interstitially in wet tropical and subtropical soils. A few species have been found in shallow coral sands and on tropical beaches. They need a damp environment to survive, and they always hide from light, so they are commonly found in the moist earth under buried stones and rocks. They can be found on every continent, except in Arctic and Antarctic regions. Terrestrial Palpigradi have hydrophobic cuticles, but littoral (beach-dwelling) species are able to pass through the water surface easily.
Very little is known about palpigrade behavior. They are believed to be predators like their larger relatives, feeding on minuscule animals in their habitat. Their mating habits are unknown, except that they lay only a few relatively large eggs at a time.

Classification

           As of 2003, approximately 79 species of palpigrades have been described worldwide, in two families, containing a total of 7 genera.The two families are differentiated by the presence of ventral sacs on sternites Prokoeneniidae, and their absence in Eukoeneniidae.
        A single fossil palpigrade species has been described from the Onyx Marble of Arizona, which is probably of Pliocene age. Its familial position is uncertain. Older publications refer to a fossil palpigrade (or palpigrade-like animal) from the Jurassic of the Solnhofen limestone in Germany, but this has now been shown to be a misidentified fossil insect.






Blogger's Notes


   As a blogger, I intended to use a name instead of my real name. I pondered some time and ended up accidentally with the word 'microwhip', but really it isn't my first choice. I thought of microgrip or even microchip. However, I get to use this with reasons that the microgrip and micrchip are unavailable usernames for Yahoo! Mail! 

 I never thought the word Microwhip would refer to an invertebrate animal which is the Palpigradi, commonly known as microwhip. I thought it to be somewhat like a 'micro + a whipping equipment'. After knowing that it refers to a scorpion, I learned to love the word Microwhip because my Zodiac sign is Scorpio.

So much with the history of Microwhip, enjoy yourselves browsing my Microwhip site!