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Two sets of muscles move the mandibles in the coronal plane of the mouth: abductor muscles move insects' mandibles apart ; adductor muscles bring them together . They do this mainly in opening and closing their jaws in feeding, but also in using the mandibles as tools, or possibly in fighting.
An insect uses its digestive system to extract nutrients and other substances from the food it consumes. [3]Most of this food is ingested in the form of macromolecules and other complex substances (such as proteins, polysaccharides, fats, and nucleic acids) which must be broken down by catabolic reactions into smaller molecules (i.e. amino acids, simple sugars, etc.) before being used by cells ...
Insect mandibles are a pair of appendages near the insect's mouth, and the most anterior of the three pairs of oral appendages (the labrum is more anterior, but is a single fused structure). Their function is typically to grasp, crush, or cut the insect's food, or to defend against predators or rivals.
The mouthparts of insects that feed on fluids are modified in various ways to form a tube through which liquid can be drawn into the mouth and usually another through which saliva passes. The muscles of the cibarium or pharynx are strongly developed to form a pump. [ 26 ]
This section provides an overview of the individual mouthparts of chewing insects. The diversification of insects' food sources led to the evolution of their mouthparts. This process was facilitated by natural selection. [1] Figure 1: Chewing mouthparts of a grasshopper. Legend: lr, labrum; md, mandibles; mx, maxillae; hp hypopharynx; lb, labium.
Strong muscles in the pharynx pump fluid into the mouth, lubricating the food, and enabling certain insects to feed on blood or from the xylem and phloem transport vessels of plants. [54] Once food leaves the crop, it passes to the midgut , where the majority of digestion takes place.
Specially designed stairs and slides convert children's movements into power, fueling mosquito-repellent lamps spaced every 1–2 meters to create a comfortable, insect-free zone.
The labrum is a flap-like structure that lies immediately in front of the mouth in almost all extant Euarthropoda. The most conspicuous exceptions are the Pycnogonida, which are probably chelicerates. In entomology, the labrum amounts to the "upper lip" of an insect mouth, the corresponding "lower lip" being the labium.