The importance of arachnids in nature and human life is difficult to overestimate. After all, they are an important element in the food chain, regulate the number of many species of insects, and some can even be deadly. The importance of arachnids in nature and human life will be briefly outlined in our article.
Characteristic features of the structure of arachnids
But first, let's look at what characteristics animal organisms refer to this systematic unit.
These are representatives of the type of arthropods, the body of which consists of the cephalothorax and abdomen. On the first of them are six pairs of limbs - these are chelicera, with the help of which arachnids pierce the body of the victim. There are also tentacles and four pairs of walking legs. The antennae are deprived of these animals. There are no limbs on the abdomen, but they can be modified into arachnoid warts or pulmonary sacs. Structural features determine the importance of arachnids in nature.
What is a web
The predominant number of arachnids is able to build trapping nets from a special substance located in special warts. They emit threads, which in their strength can even be compared with a steel wire. The web pattern is characteristic of each species. Drops of sticky liquid are on spirally twisted threads. If an insect comes into it, then there is little chance of getting out of it. In addition to the hunting net, dwellings and cocoons are made from this substance. The value in nature and human life of arachnids is also determined by the way of feeding.
Predator spiders
All types of spiders are predators, but their hunting methods are completely different. To receive a victim, it is not necessary to lurk and pounce on it, like horse spiders. Many species use a hunting net for this. Once in it, the insect is trying to break out. At the same time, the web threads begin to oscillate. One of them is always attached to the limbs of a predator. It only remains for him to approach the victim and put it to death.
The importance of arachnids in nature and human life is also due to the method of digestion. They can only eat liquid food. Through the hole that the spider makes in the victim’s body with the help of a chelicera, he injects digestive enzymes inside. After a certain period of time, the spider pumps the already digested contents into its intestines using its own sucking stomach.
For a person, bites of karakurt and tarantula can be dangerous. Their poison causes severe pain throughout the body, trembling and loss of consciousness. In this condition, a person needs to enter a special serum, and burn the place of the bite with a match to stop the spread of toxins.
The value of arachnids in nature and human life
It is worth noting that predatory spiders never attack a person in order to profit. They do it for protection. But their poison can be deadly. However, most often spiders prey on small inhabitants of ponds and insects. Destroying the latter, they thereby regulate their numbers. Thus, the number of blood-sucking insects, agricultural pests is reduced. This, of course, determines the positive value in the nature and life of arachnids. Spider venom is the raw material for the production of sleeping pills and sedatives. To obtain them, many species of spiders are bred artificially.
Ticks: the importance of arachnids in human life
Modern taxonomy divides the class of arachnids into nine orders. The most common are spiders, ticks and scorpions. The importance of arachnids in the lives of people and nature are different systematic categories of this type of arthropod animals.
Everyone knows that walking along a forest belt in late spring and early summer can be dangerous. After all, it is during this period that ticks multiply actively and look for sources of nutrition. Their body consists of fused cephalothorax and abdomen, and the head is formed by tentacles and chelicera. Ticks are also distinguished from other arachnids by an indirect development cycle. This means that a larva with three pairs of legs develops from an egg, which eventually transforms into four.
Habitat
Great importance in nature and human life of arachnids is due to their wide distribution. These are not only forests, salty and fresh water bodies, soil, various plants, the surface, as well as the body of animals and humans - all these environments are great for feeding and tick activity.
The negative value of arachnids in the life of people and nature is that many types of ticks are causative agents of very dangerous diseases. Feeding on the blood of humans and animals, they can tolerate encephalitis, pyroplasmosis of cattle and dogs, and relapsing fever.
Severe itching on the skin and the appearance of scabs (scabs) can be a manifestation of parasitism of scabies itching. This tick gnaws moves in the skin, while laying its eggs there. From there, over time, young sexually mature ticks emerge. It is not always possible to immediately notice the cause, because the size of the itch itch varies in the range of 0.2-0.5 mm. The danger lies also in the fact that a person can become infected through the household by using one towel, a comb, and shaking hands.
Acne gland can parasitize in the sebaceous glands and hair bags of the human body . This parasite causes the appearance of pustules on the skin, hair loss.
Barn and gall mites harm agriculture and food supplies. Barn species on humans do not parasitize. These ticks live in mattresses, pillows, blankets, bedding, floor cracks, and feed on dead organics. But the products of their livelihoods, the integument that remains after molting, often fall into the respiratory tract of a person, causing severe allergic reactions.
Protection methods
To protect yourself from ticks, going for a walk, you need to close the body with tight clothes and a hat. Returning home, view all things, remove and destroy dangerous arachnids.
If the parasite has already sucked, you need to act carefully. With vegetable oil or petroleum jelly, it is necessary to treat the place of attachment of the tick. The essence of this action is that in the spiracles of their trachea located on the abdominal side of the body, oxygen stops flowing. As a result, the tick disappears by itself. If you try to tear it off by force, the head of the parasite will remain under the skin. This may cause the wound to rot. And in this case, it is impossible to do without surgical intervention. If you did everything right, do not throw away the tick. It is better to take it to a specialized laboratory in order to find out if he is a carrier of a dangerous disease.
In order not to give a chance to develop a barn tick, it is necessary to monitor hygiene in the house, periodically change bedding, dry pillows and mattresses in the sun, and often carry out wet cleaning of the room.
Scorpions
Bright representatives of the arachnid class are scorpions. Most of them live in tropical regions and in subtropical regions. On the back of their abdomen are glands containing a toxic substance. The ducts of toxic glands are opened with a needle, which ends with the abdomen. Scorpion venom is very dangerous for human health and sometimes human life.
Benefit and harm
But, as they say, there is no silver lining. An important positive value of arachnids in nature and human life is their participation in the processes of soil formation. For example, shell mites, being saprotrophs, decompose dead organics. At the same time, the soil is enriched with nitrogen, which is so necessary for plants for the development of the root system. By destroying harmful insects and other arthropods, many types of ticks help to save crops of cultivated plants and impede the spread of deadly diseases.
Thus, the importance of arachnids in nature, human life is great both negative and positive.