Minibeasts

This short presentation provides the viewer with information on the scary and interesting minibeasts such as arachnids, insects, annelids, crustaceans and many more. The presentation includes interesting facts and pictures

1. Mini Beasts

2. Mini-beasts are the insects and bugs
that live around us.

3. Arachnids

4. Arachnids
1
are named after the Greek arachne,
1
meaning spider.

5. Arachnids have:
- two main body parts:

The cephalothorax
and
The abdomen

6. Arachnids have:
- 8 eyes

7. Arachnids have:
- silk spinning organs called
spinneretes

8. Arachnids have:
- no antennae and
- no wings

9. Instead Arachnids have:
- Mouth parts called
chelicerae which in spiders are fangs

10. Arachnids have:
4
- eight walking legs

11. Locomotion:
Arachnids move using muscles attached
to the inside of the exoskeleton to flex
their limbs.
Most arachnids, keep at least four legs
on the surface while walking or running.

12. However spiders use hydraulic
pressure to extend their legs.
Some spiders can jump 50 times
their own height.
Because of this hydraulic pressure
the legs of dead spiders curl up.

13. Common Arachnids include:
Scorpions
Ticks
Mites
Spiders

14. Spiders are ancient animals with a history
going back many millions of years.
They have always been with us, an ancient
source of fear and fascination.

They are abundant and widespread and are
natural controllers of insect populations.

Wherever you live, you're always close to a
spider!

15. Insects

16. The first insects probably
appeared
400 - 360 million years ago!!

17. Insects play an essential role in the
web of life.
They are an amazingly diverse group
of animals that have conquered
almost every environment on earth.

18. Insects comprise 75% of all animal
species that scientists have named
and described, and most of these
insects have wings.
The key to insect success is their
ability to survive on land and take to
the air.

20. Insects perform jobs that help
humans.
Some of their jobs include
pollinating flowering plants,
being a source of food for other
animals
and
assisting in the decomposition of
plants and animals.

22. Insects have:
- Three main body parts: head, thorax,
abdomen

23. Insects have:
- Six legs attached to the thorax (which
has 3 segments)

24. Insects have:
- Some adult insects have one or two
pairs of wings attached to the thorax

25. Insects have:
- Two antennae

26. Insects have:
4
- Lateral compound eyes.

Compound eyes are different
from human eyes which have
a single lens for each eye.
Compound eyes have many
lenses for each eye. For
example, the fly has about
4,000 lenses in a single eye.
This provides them with very
good eyesight.

27. Locomotion:
4
Insects move through muscles attached
to the inside of the skeleton.

28. Common insects include:
Grasshoppers
Butterflies
Beetles
Ants

29. Insects are the only Mini-beast that
have learned how to fly!
They did this about 285 – 245
MILLION years ago.

30. Molluscs

31. Mollusc means 'soft-bodied’.
All molluscs have soft bodies on the inside,
although some have developed a tough shell.

32. Molluscs live almost everywhere - on
the rocky shore, in freshwater
habitats and in your garden.

33. Mollusc have:
- an unsegmented, soft body

34. Molluscs have:
- a muscular foot or tentacles

35. Molluscs have:
- a mantle that can secrete a shell

36. Most, but not all, molluscs have:
- an internal or external shell

37. Most, but not all, molluscs have:
- a radula (tongue with teeth)

38. Locomotion:
Mollusc move through extending
and contracting their muscular
“foot”

39. Common molluscs are:
Snails
Mussels
Oysters
Octopus

40. A snail can sleep for three years!!

42. Centipedes and Millipedes

43. Centipedes and Millipedes are
myriapods, meaning: 'many pairs of
legs'.

44. They have:
- a segmented body,

45. They have:
- one pair of antennae

46. They have:
- breathing holes called spiracles.

47. Locomotion:
As Myriapods or centipedes and
millipedes move, its legs all move
in order down its body.

This makes it look like a 'wave' of
movement that seems to travel
from one end to the other.
The walking legs stretch out
sideways and prevent the
Myriapod falling over when it
runs.

48. Centipedes have one pair of legs per
body segment.

49. Millipedes have two pairs of legs per
body segment

50. Centipedes have the first pair of legs
behind the head modified into a pair of
fangs containing a poison gland.

Millipedes do not.

51. Centipedes are carnivores;
Millipedes are herbivores or
detritivores (feed on decaying
vegetation).

52. Giant Centipede

53. Many centipedes guard their eggs
and young by curling around them,
while millipedes protect their eggs
from predators in a nest of hard soil.

54. Millipede

55. Centipede

56. Crustaceans

57. Crustaceans are among the
most widespread and
diverse group of
invertebrates.

58. Balmain bug

59. All crustaceans have:
- a body divided into a head, thorax
and abdomen
- two eyes
- two pairs of antennae
- a hard exoskeleton
- jointed, paired legs
(some crustaceans have up to 17
pairs of legs).

60. Black Yabbie

61. Locomotion:
Crustaceans that live in the water
have paddles on their back legs. This
is what makes them able to swim.
Crustaceans don’t usually move
straight forward when on land.

63. They use walking legs which are on
the backside of their body.
This makes crustaceans walk either
right or left instead of forward.
One side of the back legs helps pull
the crab, and the others stretch out
and push.

64. Hermit crab

65. The most common types of
crustaceans are:
Crabs
Shrimps
Lobsters
Barnacles,

66. Blue swimmer crab

67. Although originally aquatic, many
crustaceans, such as slaters and
beachhoppers, are adapted to life on
land.

68. Red Rock Crab

69. Aboriginal People of coastal Sydney
collected and ate many different
types of shellfish and crustaceans.
In Botany Bay when Captain Cook
first landed in Australia he saw the
Aborigines collecting shellfish.

70. Annelids

71. Annelids are invertebrates.
This means they do not have a back
bone.
They are soft and squishy.
They are long.
They have no legs.

73. Annelids have:
- Long cylindrical shaped bodies
made up of many similar segments
- No antennae
- No obvious head end

75. Common annelids include:
Worms
Leeches
and
some marine worms

76. Worms play an important part in all the
ecosystems of the world.
Several other worms may be free-living,
or nonparasitic.

77. Some worms living in
the ground help to
condition the soil while
others thrive as parasites
of plants and animals,
including humans.

78. Locomotion:
Annelids move by using muscles to
shorten and extend their body.