Miniaturisation in Chelicerata

Arachnids and their relatives (Chelicerata) range in body length from tens of centimetres in horseshoe crabs down to little more than 80–200 μm in several groups of mites. Spiders (Araneae) show the widest range within a given Bauplan – the largest species being ca. 270 times longer than the smallest – making them excellent models to investigate scaling effects. The two mite clades (Parasitiformes and Acariformes) are the main specialists in...