Everything about The Metasoma totally explained
The
metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or
tagma, of
arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the
prosoma and the
mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the
digestive tract,
respiratory system, and
circulatory system, and the apical segments are typically modified to form
genitalia. In a few of the most primitive insects (the
Archaeognatha), the metasomal segments bear small, articulated appendages called "styli", which are often considered to be
vestigial. There are also pre-apical appendages in most insect orders, called
cerci, which may be multi-segmented and almost resembling a posterior pair of
antennae; these may be variously modified, or lost entirely. Otherwise, most adult insects lack appendages on the metasoma, though many larval insects (for example,
caterpillars) have some form of appendages, such as
prolegs or, in aquatic insects,
gills.
In
Apocritan
Hymenoptera (
wasps,
bees and
ants), the metasoma consists of the second
abdominal segment (which typically forms a
petiole) and those segments posterior to it, and is often called the
gaster rather than referring to it as the "abdomen"; in these insects, the first abdominal segment is called the
propodeum and is fused to the
thorax. The metasoma is
armoured with
chitinous plates, on the upper surface by the
tergites and on the lower surface by the
sternites.
In
scorpions, the metasoma is the tail.
In other arachnids such as
spiders, the
mesosoma is fused with the metasoma to form the
opisthosoma.
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