Introduction

Abstract

Arthropods are the most diverse and successful phylum and emerged presumably during the Cambrian explosion, approximately 540 Mya (Butterfield, 2003). Although varying in morphological features, behaviors, habitats and lifestyles, all hexapods, chelicerates, crustaceans and myriapods share a common ground pattern. They are characterized by jointed limbs, a segmented body and an exoskeleton, consisting of a chitin cuticle (Cutler, 1980; Schmidt-Nielsen, 1984; Rupert, 2004).