Arthropods

Among the phyla of the animal kingdom, arthropods occupy a prominent position both for the exorbitant number of species they encompass (roughly 83% of those currently classified), as well as for the importance they assume within ecosystems, not to mention their importance to human cultures.
Arthropods are invertebrates whose bodies, symmetrical along the longitudinal axis and equipped with a chitinous exoskeleton, are subdivided into a series of segments (metameres), some of which are equipped with articulated appendages (hence the origin of the name, derived from Greek: "Ἄρθρον" = "Joint" and "Ποδός" = "Foot").

There are four generally recognized subphyla:

• Chelicerata (Beyond the class of arachnids - spiders, scorpions, amblypygids, solifuges, Opiliones, etc. - the Merostomata group which includes the striking Atlantic horseshoe crab, aka Limulus polyphemus, is noteworthy).
• Crustaceans (6 classes characterized by primarily aquatic organisms - crayfish, crabs, lobsters, krill, prawns, barnacles, etc).
• Myriapods (4 classes including animals with elongated torsos such as millipedes and centipedes).
• Hexapods (Insects represents the most populous and well-known class of hexapods, with over one million different species currently known).

 
This Tag is intended to group together films with a (sci-fi) horror component and a significant presence of one or more species belonging to the phylum outlined above.That sense of suspicion, discomfort, and even repugnance, that many kinds of bugs tend to inspire in the "typical Western moviegoer" has been widely exploited in genre cinema, starting with a wave of drive-in movies that swept the US in the 1950s. Over the years, directors and screenwriters with their fertile imaginations have provided us countless iterations of the creepy-crawly theme, from the gigantic mutants of classic sci-fi to nature's deadly attacks on humanity typical of 1970's eco-horror; from the familiar mad doctors with their "entomological" experiments to the bleak digital invasions delivered by the low-budget productions of the early 2000s.

P.S. This Tag will also be applied to insectoids, that is, fictitious creatures (often of extraterrestrial origin) which share physical traits with insects, arachnids, or other arthropods.