|Marine Spiders||Marine Insects|
Sea spiders, also called Pantopoda or pycnogonids, are marine arthropods of class Pycnogonida. They are cosmopolitan, found especially in the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas, as well as the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. There are over 1300 known species, ranging in size from 1 to 10 millimeters to over 90 centimeters in some deep water species. Most are toward the smaller end of this range in relatively shallow depths, however, they can grow to be quite large in Antarctic waters.
Although "sea spiders" are not true spiders, or even arachnids, their traditional classification as chelicerates would place them closer to true spiders than to other well known arthropod groups, such as insects or crustaceans. However this is in dispute, and they may even be an ancient sister group to all other living arthropods
Sea spiders have long legs in contrast to a small body size. The number of walking legs is usually eight (four pairs), but species with five and six pairs exist. Because of their small size and slender body and legs, no respiratory system is necessary, with gases moving by diffusion. A proboscis allows them to suck nutrients from soft-bodied invertebrates, and their digestive tract has diverticula extending into the legs.
Pycnogonids are so small that each of their tiny muscles consists of only one single cell, surrounded by connective tissue. The anterior region consists of the proboscis, which has fairly limited dorsoventral and lateral movement, and three to four appendages including the ovigers, which are used in caring for young and cleaning as well as courtship. In some species, the chelifores, palps and ovigers can be reduced or missing in adults. In those species that lack chelifores and palps, the proboscis is well developed and more mobile and flexible, often equipped with numerous sensory bristles and strong rasping ridges around the mouth. The last segment includes the anus and tubercle, which projects dorsally.
In total, Pycnogonids have four to six pairs of legs for walking as well as other appendages which often resemble legs. A cephalothorax and much smaller abdomen make up the extremely reduced body of the Pycnogonid, which has up to two pairs of dorsally located simple eyes on its non-calcareous exoskeleton, though sometimes the eyes can be missing, especially among species living in the deep oceans. The abdomen does not have any appendages, and in most species it is reduced and almost vestigial. The organs of this chelicerate extend throughout many appendages because its body is too small to accommodate all of them alone.
The morphology of the sea spider creates an extremely well-suited surface-area to volume ratio for any respiration to occur through direct diffusion. The most recent research seems to indicate that waste leaves the body through the digestive tract or is lost during a moult. The small, long, thin pycnogonid heart beats vigorously at 90 to 180 beats per minute, creating substantial blood pressure. These creatures possess an open circulatory system as well as a nervous system consisting of a brain which is connected to two ventral nerve cords, which in turn connect to specific nerves.
Although insects are undoubtedly the most common animals on land, very few species appear to live in the sea. However, they are actually rather well represented in diverse coastal marine or saline habitats. A marine insect is any insect that spends at least part of its life cycle in the marine environment, which includes any habitat
Marine habitats can be divided either by salinity or by their position relative to the tidal level.
Three types of saline habitats are generally accepted, based on their salt content (in parts per thousand): brackish (0.5-32), sea (34-37), and inland saline (0.5-250).
Marine biologists, on the other hand, have traditionally divided coastal habitats into various zones according to their coverage by seawater or exposure to the sun.
Three major zones are recognized: supralittoral (covered only during highest spring tides), littoral or intertidal (covered regularly between high and low tides), and sublittoral (never exposed even during the lowest low tides). An additional important habitat for marine insects is the pelagic zone, which comprises the open ocean far from the shore.
The majority of marine insects occur in the intertidal zones, which can be further categorized by the types of vegetation associated with them, for example seagrasses and rushes (Spartina and Juncus), seaweeds (green, blue-green, brown, or red), mangroves (Rhizophora, Avicennia, Bruguiera, and Sonneratia), or other higher plants (Xylocarpa and Acanthus).
The salinity of water in the various intertidal habitats tends to be variable or brackish. Larvae of several marine chironomids (Diptera) live among submerged vegetation in the sublittoral zone, which may include various green plants (Enhalus, Halophila, and Halodule) and algae (Halimeda and Corallina).
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