Carapace and Cephalothorax

[Salamanderhead]

Whats the difference? I have a picture I printed out of the outside of a tarantulas body anatomy. I was just looking at it and I realized the area called Cephalothorax seems to be the same area called the carapace (which I always called it).
Is the Cephalothorax the area surrounding the carapace where the legs connect or is it an area under the carapace?
Thanks.

 

[BiologicalJewels]

You are correct in thinking they are the same body part.

Cephalothorax
carapace
prosoma

they all have the same use when reffering to T anatomy.

Cheer on and enjoy your T's

OR

 

[Salamanderhead]

Are they really just the same part? The reason Im confused is because they are both on the diagram.
The diagram has a bracket on the outside saying Cephalothorax and on the other side has a line pointing to the center saying carapace.

 

[Maurelius]

Carapace-- "a bony or chitinous shield, test, or shell covering some or all of the dorsal part of an animal" *

Cephalothorax-- "the anterior part of the body in certain arachnids and crustaceans, consisting of the coalesced head and thorax" *

In short, the carapace is the top of the cephalothorax that you look at while the cephalothorax is the entire part of the body to which everything else (legs, abdomen, etc.) is attached.



*as defined at dictionary.com

 

[Salamanderhead]

Good explanation. Thank you.

 

[BiologicalJewels]

nicely done

 

[Roski]

This is how I remember it: the cephalothorax is so named because it is the entire body segment. Celphalo- denotes "head" and thorax denotes, well, thorax. It's the two body segments that are normally kept separate in, say, insects, fused together. The carapace then indicates the dorsal exoskeletal portion of the segment.

*as defined by the little neurons in my head

 

[natebugman]

I usually think of the carapace as the part of the cephalothorax that the tarantula "pops" at the beginning of molting.

 

[xhexdx]

I usually think of the carapace as the part of the cephalothorax that the tarantula "pops" at the beginning of molting.

Yep, that's correct.