The arrangement, distribution, and pattern of bristles or hair-like structures on the body of an arthropod, used in taxonomy to identify and classify species.
From Greek 'chaete' (bristle, hair) and 'taxis' (arrangement, order), combining to describe the systematic ordering of bristles used in scientific classification.
Entomologists use chaetotaxy like a fingerprint system—the exact pattern and location of bristles on a fly or midge is so specific that scientists can identify species using just the arrangement of these micro-hairs!
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