This page is devoted to the more common insects and spiders of the Northwest. A complete list and description of these arthropods is just about impossible for any single source; for further detailed information I recommend the Burke Museum. The information below is taken from the textbook classic, “Invertebrate Zoology” by Rupert and Barnes, 6th edition.
Subphylum Chelicerata:
Class Merostomata – aquatic chelicerates
Class Pycnogonida – sea spiders
Class Arachnida – scorpions, spiders, mites, ticks, harvestman
- Order Scorpiones – the scorpions; oldest known terrestrial arthropods
- Orders Palpigradi, Schizomida, Uropygi, Uraneae, Amblypygi, Ricinulei – small tropical and semi-tropical orders of arachnids
- Order Araneae – spiders; the largest order of arachnids
- Order Pseudiones – tiny arachnids that generally live under leaf mold, bark, logs, etc. and resemble little scorpions due to their large pedipalps
- Order Solifugae – camel spiders or wind spiders
- Order Opiliones – harvestman or “Daddy Longlegs”
- The Acari – a huge group of seven orders that contains the mites and ticks
Subphylum Hexapoda:
Class Insecta:
- Order Diplura – small, blind and wingless found under logs, rocks, etc. Note the pair of caudal filaments at end of abdomen
- Order Protura – small, eyeless; lack antenna
- Order Collembola – springtails
- Order Microcoryphia or Archeognatha – jumping bristletails
- Order Ephemeroptera – mayflies
- Order Odonata – dragonflies and damselflies
- Oder Orthoptera – grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, roaches, mantids, and walkingsticks
- Order Isoptera – termites
- Order Plecoptera – stone flies
- Order Dermaptera – earwigs
- Order Embioptera – web spinners
- Order Pscoptera – book lice, bark lice, and poscids
- Order Zoroptera – pale, soft bodied little guys that resemble termites
- Order Mallophaga – chewing lice and bird lice
- Order Anoplura – sucking lice
- Order Thysanoptera – thrips
- Order Hemiptera – true bugs
- Ordr Homoptera – cicadas, leaf hoppers, aphids
- Order Neuroptera – Lacewings, ant lions, mantispids, snake flies, dobsonflies
- Order Coleoptera – Beetles and weevils (the largest order of insects; more than 300,00 species)
- Order Strepsiptera – tiny beetle like insects, usually parasitic on other insects
- Order Mecoptera – scorpion flies
- Order Trichoptera – caddis flies and water moths
- Order Lepidoptera – butterflies and moths
- Order Diptera – true flies
- Oder Hymenoptera – ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies
- Order Siphonaptera – fleas
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