Word of the week: Pedipalp!

I have a new favorite word, courtesy of Arwulf, who in zoology class was tasked with dissecting a crayfish and examining the pedipalp.

The pedipalp! I am enraptured! 

It sounds like a naughty Victorian undergarment. (“As Lady Anna reached languidly for the bell-pull, Montague gasped at the unexpected glimpse of her lacy pedipalp.”)   

Alas, my compulsive fact checking indicates that crayfish and other crustaceans do not in fact have pedipalps. Rather, they have “chelipeds.” This is a much less wonderful word. (Sorry, Arwulf!) The pedipalp is found exclusively in the sub-phylum Chelicerata, which includes spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, mites and ticks.

Crayfish DO, however, have something called a rostrum. Sadly, this is not a platform on which tinier animals stand to declaim.  

Science is fun! Now when do we get étoufée?

Image courtesy of Wikipedia: “Male Striped lynx spider showing enlarged pedipalps.” Or perhaps he is just happy to see you. (And because I know your mind is in the gutter, yes, spiders do use their pedipalps For That.)