- Exuvia
Exuvia (alternative spelling exuvium, plural: exuviae [Torre-Bueno, J.R. de la, et al. (1989) The Torre-Bueno Glossary of Entomology, rev. ed. New York: New York Entomological Society. 840 pp. ISBN 0913424137] [Grimaldi, D. and Engel, M.S. (2005) Evolution of the Insects.
Cambridge University Press , ISBN 0-521-82149-5] ] ) is a term used inbiology to describe the remains of anexoskeleton that is left after anarthropod (insect ,crustacean orarachnid ) has moulted. The exuvia of an animal can be important tobiologist s as it can often be used identify thespecies of the animal and even itssex .As it is not always practical to study insects, crustaceans or arachnids directly and because exuviae can be collected fairly easily, exuviae can play an important part in helping to determine some general aspects of a species overall life cycle such as distribution, sex ratio, production and proof of breeding in a habitat.
References
External links
* [http://www.benthos.org/database/allnabstracts.cfm/db/Vancouver2004abstracts/id/18 Benthos.org]
* [http://www.brerc.org.uk/groups/brdrs/exuviae.htm Brerc.org.uk]
* [http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/07/04/ Exuviae of a scorpion (Centruroides gracilis)]
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