en-ended arteries.The arthropod heart is typically a muscular tube that runs the length of the body, under the back and from the base of the head. Instead of blood the circulatory fluid is haemolymph which carries the most commonly used respiratory pigment, copper-based haemocyanin as the oxygen transporter; iron-based haemoglobin is used by only a few arthropods. The heart contracts in ripples from the rear to the front of the animal transporting water and nutrients. Pairs of valves run alongside the heart, allowing fluid to enter whilst preventing backflow.

In insects, the circulatory system is not used to transport oxygen and so is much reduced, having no veins or arteries and consisting of a single perforated tube running dorsally which pumps peristaltically. The simpler unsegmented invertebrates have no body cavity, and oxygen and nutrients pass through their bodies by diffusion.