How to Use arthropod in a Sentence

arthropod

noun
  • When the light turns blue, the same walls crawl with beetles, spiders and arthropods.
    Edward Rothstein, WSJ, 18 Dec. 2017
  • The hearty arthropods, which have roamed the earth for millions of years, can indeed be unwanted guests.
    Peter Prengaman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Sep. 2019
  • These small, paired appendages near the mouth bite, hold and tear food, and arthropods with these mouthparts are called mandibulates.
    Mindy Weisberger, CNN, 30 July 2024
  • As far as prevention goes, Dr. Bhuyan says the best way to avoid typhus is to steer clear of arthropods (fleas, ticks, mites, and lice) that spread it.
    Sarah Klein, Health.com, 31 Oct. 2019
  • These arthropods are more likely to prey on ticks when they are fully engorged with blood.
    Paul Richards, Field & Stream, 9 Nov. 2023
  • Add it all up, and light is one of the major causes of mortality for arthropods.
    Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 26 Nov. 2019
  • But to them, the physics of arthropods makes electrostatic forces inevitable.
    Max G. Levy, WIRED, 27 Oct. 2024
  • This tiny brown arthropod leads a quiet life, preferring shade and shelter and staying out of the way of the woodpecker’s bill.
    Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 26 June 2023
  • Not much, apparently, for a rare type of arthropod from the planet's remote past.
    Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 2 May 2023
  • Its dense shade cools mountain streams, and its leaves and branches host hundreds of insects and other arthropods.
    Gabriel Popkin, Science | AAAS, 15 Jan. 2020
  • Lianas form pathways from tree to tree that are used by monkeys, squirrels, sloths and thousands of species of insects and other small arthropods.
    Jackson Landers, Smithsonian, 13 June 2017
  • Spiders aren't the only creatures that have evolved this trap-jaw mechanism, says Spagna—trap-jaw ants and springtails, a type of arthropod, both do.
    National Geographic, 7 Apr. 2016
  • While there are plenty of species of arthropods preserved in the fossil record, most fossils only preserve the hard skeletons.
    Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 30 Aug. 2023
  • The most common types of creatures in the CCZ are arthropods, worms, echinoderms (spiny invertebrates like sea urchins), and sponges.
    Melissa Breyer, Treehugger, 26 May 2023
  • To see if perhaps crabs were the exception rather than the rule among arthropods, Full decided to study cockroaches.
    Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
  • These arthropods lacked the skinny waist sported by modern spiders.
    Amber Dance, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 May 2024
  • For example, marine arthropods called trilobites that lived more than half a billion years ago had calcite in their eyes.
    Evan Thomas Saitta, Discover Magazine, 12 Apr. 2024
  • The adaptability of these appendages may be one reason why there are more species of arthropods on Earth than any other group of animals.
    Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Now a new study shows that wealthier homes have more types of arthropods—which include insects and spiders—than less expensive homes.
    Matt Bertone, National Geographic, 2 Aug. 2016
  • They are known to feed on fungus, particularly the mildew type and possibly arthropods such as mites, aphids, and scale insects.
    oregonlive.com, 26 July 2019
  • The most profound impacts were seen during the wet season, when birds reduced arthropods by 58 percent and bats reduced them by 84 percent.
    Lesley Evans Ogden, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Jan. 2024
  • And giant African millipedes (the same species of arthropods that escaped from a package addressed to Wlodzimie Lapkiewicz)?
    Jani Actman, National Geographic, 5 Sep. 2019
  • Across the natural world — in vertebrates, arthropods and plants — new species most often arise after a little more than 2 million years.
    Quanta Magazine, 5 May 2015
  • The mosquito emoji may pave the way for more medically important arthropods: perhaps the tick, flea, lice and bed bug emoji will be on their way soon.
    Smithsonian, 28 Feb. 2018
  • Some researchers suggest that insect wings came from gill-like appendages present in ancient aquatic arthropods.
    Rupendra Brahambhatt, Ars Technica, 22 Apr. 2024
  • One dead animal can support a whole pop-up food web of microbes, soil fauna and arthropods that make their living off carcasses.
    Jennifer Debruyn, The Conversation, 28 Sep. 2023
  • These arthropods can be identified by their fuzzy, striped exterior and their 15 pairs of legs, which allow them to travel at speeds of 16 inches per second.
    Margeaux Sippell, BostonGlobe.com, 26 June 2018
  • But in the celestial world of arthropods, none are more famous than the Crab Nebula, first observed by an amateur British astronomer in the 18th century.
    National Geographic, 20 Mar. 2018
  • And the team found that artificial traps with feathers around them captured more wandering arthropods than those without.
    Joshua Rapp Learn, Scientific American, 8 Nov. 2019
  • There are also some familiar creatures, including arthropods such as crustaceans and horseshoe crabs, as well as sponges, starfish, and worms.
    Byelizabeth Pennisi, science.org, 1 May 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'arthropod.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: