United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of threatened and endangered arthropods species may be treated as endangered or threatened if it resembles in appearance a species which has been listed and enforcement personnel would have difficulty distinguishing between the listed and the unlisted species; if the effect of this difficulty is an additional threat to the listed species; and if such treatment of the unlisted species would improve protection for the listed species. United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of threatened and endangered arthropods List of threatened and endangered arthropods, including insects, arachnids, and crustaceans under the United States Endangered Species Act as of October 2013. Key to Listing Status
Arthropod micrograms (millionths of a gram), while the heaviest weigh over . Some living crustaceans are much larger; for example, the legs of the Japanese spider crab may span up to , with the heaviest of all living arthropods being the American lobster, topping out at over 20 kg (44 lbs). The embryos of all arthropods are segmented, built from a series of repeated modules. The last common ancestor of living arthropods probably consisted of a series of undifferentiated segments, each with a pair of appendages that functioned as limbs. However, all known living and fossil arthropods have grouped segments into