A saccular respiratory organ found in some arachnids, such as scorpions and spiders, consisting of several parallel membranous folds arranged like the pages in a book.



Book lung is form of respiratory organ found in certain air-breathing arachnid arthropods (scorpions and some spiders).
Each book lung consists of a series of thin plates that are highly vascular (i.e., richly supplied with blood) and are arranged in relation to each other like the pages of a book.
These plates extend into an internal pouch formed by the external skeleton that opens to the exterior by a small slit. This provides an extensive surface for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the surrounding air.
There are four pairs in scorpions and up to two in spiders.

book lung, terrestrial respiratory organ characteristic of arachnids such as scorpions and primitive spiders. Each book lung consists of hollow flat plates. Air bathes the outer surface of the plates and blood circulates within them, facilitating the exchange of gases. In most species, adequate gas exchange occurs without any muscular movement to ventilate the lung.


Book lung is a type of respiration organ used for atmospheric gas exchange and is found in arachnids, such as scorpions and spiders. Each of these organs is found inside a ventral abdominal cavity and connects with the surroundings through a small opening. Book lungs are not related to the lungs of modern land-dwelling vertebrates. Their name describes their structure. Stacks of alternating air pockets and hemolymph-filled tissue gives them an appearance similar to a "folded" book. Their number varies from just one pair in most spiders to four pairs in scorpions. Sometimes the book lungs can be absent and the gas exchange is performed by the thin walls inside the cavity instead, with its surface area increased by branching into the body as thin tubes called tracheae. It is possible that the tracheae have evolved directly from the book lungs, because in some spiders the tracheae have a small number of greatly elongated chambers. Many arachnids, like mites and harvestmen (Opiliones), have no traces of book lungs and breathe through tracheae or through their body surface only.
The unfolded "pages" (plates) of the book lung are filled with hemolymph (the arthropod blood). The folds maximize the surface exposed to air, and thereby maximize the amount of gas exchanged with the environment. In most species, no motion of the plates is required to facilitate this kind of respiration.
The oldest book lungs have been recovered from extinct trigonotarbid arachnids preserved in the 410 million year old Rhynie chert of Scotland. These Devonian fossil lungs are almost indistinguishable from the lungs of modern arachnids.
The absence or presence of book lungs divides the Arachnida into two main groups, but says nothing about the relationships between them: the pulmonate arachnids (book lungs present; scorpions, whip scorpions, Schizomida, Amblypygi, and spiders), and the apulmonate arachnids (book lungs absent; microwhip scorpions, harvestmen, Acarina, pseudoscorpions, Ricinulei and sunspiders). One of the long-running controversies in arachnid evolution is whether the book lung evolved once in the arachnid common ancestor, or whether it evolved in multiple groups of arachnids in parallel as they came onto land.