Q.Differentiate between tergum and a sternum.

Step 1. In an arthropod such as the cockroach, the hard exoskeleton of each body segment is made up of separate hardened plates called sclerites, rather than one continuous shell.

Step 2. The sclerite on the dorsal (upper) side of a segment is called the tergum (plural terga); in the abdomen, differences in how the terga overlap between segments are even used to tell male and female cockroaches apart.

Step 3. The sclerite on the ventral (lower) side of the same segment is called the sternum (plural sterna); for example, the female cockroach's brood pouch is formed from the 7th, 8th and 9th abdominal sterna. …

Contrast the dorsal tergum with the ventral sternum as the two main sclerite …

• Reversing which plate is dorsal (tergum) and which is ventral (sternum). …