Phylum Arthropoda at over 1,110,000 described species worldwide (Stork 1997) is by far the most successful phylum in the animal kingdom. Another way to look at the success of this group is that 85% of all animals are arthropods. Arthropods include insects, arachnids, crustaceans, millipedes, centipedes, and many other minor groups commonly referred to as "bugs" or "critters" by the general public.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to numerous arthropods and while this is the most abundant group known from the park, it is also the one of the groups that has the most undocumented species in the park. Arthropods have many values to humans and the ecosystem, including pollinating flowers, decomposing dead animals and feces, controlling populations of "pest" species, providing food to other animals (and in some cases, food for humans), and being beautiful (such as butterflies). Knowing more about arthropods allows us to insure that these valuable functions continue and help us to control the "pest" species ourselves, including those like mosquitoes and ticks that can transmit deadly human diseases.
