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The extreme physical and climatic conditions of the desert biome have engendered or enhanced a number of inter-related morphologi-cal, behavioural, and physiological adaptations in different parts of the world, many of which are paralleled in various quite unrelated taxa of animals and even of plants. For example, the integuments of desert arthropods and the cuticles of desert angiosperms both possess unusually impervious wax layers, while insect spiracles and plant stornata are exceptionally well developed among desert species (Figure 1). There is also a positive correlation between the high critical temperatures of desert arthropod cuticles and the high ambient temperatures that the animals experience in their natural habitats.

Xeromorphic desert plants, that is, plants whose structure is adapted to aridity, are characterised by having their stornata buried in the epicuticle well below the general level of the plant surface, or superficially depressed within the extremely thick surrounding cuticle; while the spiracles of desert arthropods are similarly often sunken and hidden below the surface of the integument

Deserts arid climates demand residing organisms to adapt to survive. Other organisms apply survival tactics physiologically based including completion of lifecycles ahead of anticipated drought, and/or avoiding water loss with the help of specialized roots or organs.