12 Arthropod Pictures Showcase Spiders, Crabs, and More

Arthropods are a highly successful group of animals that evolved more than 500 million years ago. But don't let the age of the group fool you into thinking arthropods are on the decline, as they are still going strong. They have colonized a vast variety of ecological niches around the globe and have evolved into a multitude of forms. They are not only long-lived in evolutionary terms, they are also numerous. There are millions of species of arthropods. The most diverse group of arthropods is the hexapods, a group that includes insects. Other groups of arthropods include the crustaceans, chelicerates, and myriapods.

Get to know the arthropods through pictures of spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, katydids, beetles, millipedes, and more.

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Cucumber Green Spider

Cucumber green spider, Araniella cucurbitina.

Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0

The cucumber green spider is an orb-web spinning spider native to Europe and parts of Asia.

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African Yellow Leg Scorpion

skeeze/Pixabay

The African yellow leg scorpion is a burrowing scorpion that inhabits southern and eastern Africa. Like all scorpions, it is a predatory arthropod.

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Horseshoe Crab

ckaras/Pixabay

The horseshoe crab is closer kin to spiders, mites, and ticks than it is to other arthropods, such as crustaceans and insects. Horseshoe crabs live in the Gulf of Mexico and northward along the Atlantic coast of North America.

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Jumping Spider

macrotiff/Pixabay

Jumping spiders are a group of spiders that includes about 5,000 species. Jumping spiders are visual hunters and have acute vision. They are skilled jumpers and secure their silk to the surface before the leap, creating a safety tether.

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Lesser Marbled Fritillary

Lesser marbled fritillary, Brenthis ino.

Tero Laakso/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

The lesser marbled fritillary is a small butterfly native to Europe. It belongs to the family Nymphalidae, a group that includes about 5,000 species.

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Ghost Crab

Rushen/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

Ghost crabs are translucent crabs that live on shores around the world. They have very good eyesight and a wide field of vision. This enables them to spot predators and other threats and scurry out of sight quickly.

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Katydid

Cowboy_Joe/Pixabay

Katydids have long antennae. They are often confused with grasshoppers, but grasshoppers have short antennae. In Britain, katydids are called bush crickets.

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Millipede

Akl0406/Pixabay

Millipedes are long-bodied arthropods that have two pairs of legs for each segment, with the exception of the first few segments behind the head — which have no leg pairs or only one leg pair. Millipedes feed on decaying plant matter.

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Porcelain Crab

prilfish/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

This porcelain crab is not really a crab at all. In fact, it belongs to a group of crustaceans that are more closely related to squat lobsters than to crabs. Porcelain crabs have a flat body and long antennae.

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Rosy Lobsterette

Rosy lobsterette, Nephropsis rosea.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/PublicDomainFiles.com/Public Domain

The rosy lobsterette is a species of lobster that inhabits the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and northward to the waters around Bermuda. It inhabits waters of depths between 1,600 and 2,600 feet.

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Dragonfly

12019/Pixabay

Dragonflies are large-eyed insects with two pairs of long, broad wings and a long body. Dragonflies resemble damselflies, but adults can be distinguished by the way they hold their wings when resting. Dragonflies hold their wings away from their bodies, either at right angles or slightly forward. Damselflies rest with their wings folded back along their bodies. Dragonflies are predatory insects and feed on mosquitoes, flies, ants, and other small insects.

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Ladybug

Damian Turski/Getty Images

Ladybugs, also known as ladybirds, are a group of beetles that range in color from yellow to orange to bright red. They have small black spots on their wing covers. Their legs, head, and antennae are black. There are more than 5,000 species of ladybugs and they occupy a variety of habitats around the globe.

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Klappenbach, Laura. "12 Arthropod Pictures Showcase Spiders, Crabs, and More." ThoughtCo, Aug. 29, 2020, thoughtco.com/arthropod-pictures-4122667. Klappenbach, Laura. (2020, August 29). 12 Arthropod Pictures Showcase Spiders, Crabs, and More. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/arthropod-pictures-4122667 Klappenbach, Laura. "12 Arthropod Pictures Showcase Spiders, Crabs, and More." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/arthropod-pictures-4122667 (accessed March 31, 2023).