Beneficial and harmful effects of arthropods to man and other vertebrates?

BENEFITS: -link in food chain

-pollination, most seed plants would not exist, ~65% insect pol.

-human food, specifically crustaceans, several million pounds annually

from Gulf of Mexico alone (primarily shrimp)

-silk

-spider silk can be stronger than steel of the same gauge.

-insectivorous arthropods help control insect pests Ex. lady bugs

-soil dwelling arthropods scavengers and decomposers

-Esthetic and psychological

Butterflies- art, literature

Scarab Beetle- sacred in anchient Egypt

HARM: *Ticks, mites, mosquitoes, fleas, lice; look upon people, their pets and

livestock as just another meal (parasitic larva can also be involved)

-painful bites of stings in self-defense, more people die of bee and

scorpion stings than by snakebite (or shark attacks!)

*Black Widow- neurotoxin, attacks CNS

*Brown Recluse- hemolytic, produces death of tissues and skin

surrounding bite

*vectors of disease: Tick- Lyme disease, Rocky Mt. Spotted fever;

Mosquito- malaria, yellow fever, viral encephalitis, filarial worms

(tsetse flies ---> trypanosoma; rat fleas ---> Bubonic Plague)

-destroy wooden structures; termites, boring crustaceans

*crops and ornamental plants destroyed

-stored grains