EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -This shell provides protection for the animals, and gives support for the attachment of the arthropod’s muscles. Although arthropods grow, their exoskeletons do not grow with them. So they must periodically shed, or “molt” their exoskeletons in favor of a new one.

Detailed explanation-2: -As animals with exoskeletons age, their soft inside parts grow. But their exoskeletons do not grow. When an animal’s soft body gets too big for the exoskeleton, the exoskeleton splits open and falls away. This process is called molting.

Detailed explanation-3: -Arthropods are covered with a tough, resilient integument or exoskeleton of chitin. Generally the exoskeleton will have thickened areas in which the chitin is reinforced or stiffened by materials such as minerals or hardened proteins.

Detailed explanation-4: -The problem of growth is solved in arthropods by molting, or ecdysis, the periodic shedding of the old exoskeleton. The underlying cells release enzymes that digest the base of the old exoskeleton (much of the endocuticle) and then secrete a new exoskeleton beneath the old one.