Threatened arthropods United States, and IUCN Red List for international purposes. Only a tiny fraction of the planet's endangered arthropods are formally recognized as such, as no one has ever evaluated the conservation status of the vast majority of arthropod species. It is difficult to estimate the total number of endangered arthropod species, since many of the taxa themselves have not been recorded. For example, in North America the estimated number of insect species exceeds 163,000, of which only about two thirds are taxonomically known. An even greater discovery awaiting, over 72 percent of North American arachnids are yet to be named
Threatened arthropods millions of undocumented arthropods on Earth. Arthropods as a group have been very successful organisms on this planet, comprising over half of all the higher life forms. However the expanding human population has led to demise of many arthropod species through the mechanisms of deforestation, conventional farming, slash-and-burn methods in the tropics, habitat fragmentation via urban development, excessive use of pesticides and even the success of forest fire suppression. The social/political practice whereby a species is given a formal designation as "Endangered" or "Protected" is a different matter, called "Conservation status", and discussed elsewhere; see Endangered Species List for the