Most monogynaspids have chelatechelate:
pincer-like, as in a crab's claws, a scorpion's pedipalps or many chelicerae; in water mites (Hydrachnida), chelate palps have a dorsal palptibial process opposed to a ventral movable palptarsus (opposed to uncate).
chelicerae that
are used to grasp and puncture their prey. In some the digits
are robust and elongate and resemble a large pair of shears or snips that can
snap-up prey. However, in the Uropodoidea the chelicerae are typically elongate,
slender and end in small pincers where the fixed digitfixed digit:
the distal extension of the middle article of the chelicera; usually bearing teeth and a distal hook and opposed to the movable digit in chelate-dentate forms, but often regressed; in Mesostigmata the fixed digit may bear the pilus dentilis.
extends well beyond the
movable digit and often has nobs or processes. In many
vertebrate parasites, the chelicerae become stylets for puncturing skin and in
some parasites of arthropods the fixed digitfixed digit:
the distal extension of the middle article of the chelicera; usually bearing teeth and a distal hook and opposed to the movable digit in chelate-dentate forms, but often regressed; in Mesostigmata the fixed digit may bear the pilus dentilis. is regressedregressed:
reduce from normal as, for example, the capitulum of astigmatan deutonymphs or the fixed digit of the chelicerae in varroa.
and the movable digit
becomes the piercing organ.
Author: David E. Walter
Content last updated Sept. 2006, unless indicated otherwise
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