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In the honey bee, the labium is elongated to form a tube and tongue, and these insects are classified as having both chewing and lapping mouthparts. [6] The wild silk moth (Bombyx mandarina) is an example of an insect that has small labial palpi and no maxillary palpi. [7]
The mandibles of a bull ant. 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.
Lapping is a mode of feeding in which liquid or semiliquid food adhering to a protrusible organ, or "tongue", is transferred from substrate to mouth. In the honey bee ( Hymenoptera : Apidae : Apis mellifera ), the elongated and fused labial glossae form a hairy tongue, which is surrounded by the maxillary galeae and the labial palps to form a ...
The anteater's tongue is covered with thousands of tiny hooks called filiform papillae which are used to hold the insects together with large amounts of saliva. Swallowing and the movement of the tongue are aided by side-to-side movements of the jaws. The tongue is attached to the sternum and moves very quickly, flicking 150 times per minute.
The labrum is a flat extension of the head (below the clypeus), covering the mandibles. Unlike other mouthparts, the labrum is a single, fused plate (though it originally was—and embryonically is—two structures).
The taxonomic history of the genus Leptogenys includes several junior synonyms as a result of the remarkable morphological diversity in the group. Several genera and subgenera were described by earlier ant taxonomists based on variation in the shape of the mandible, the number of mandibular teeth, the form of the clypeus, the presence of teeth on the anterior clypeal margin, and the number of ...
The tongue is an important accessory organ in the digestive system. The tongue is used for crushing food against the hard palate, during mastication and manipulation of food for softening prior to swallowing. The epithelium on the tongue's upper, or dorsal surface is keratinised. Consequently, the tongue can grind against the hard palate ...
Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. The only places lacking indigenous ants are Antarctica and a few remote or inhospitable islands. Ants thrive in moist tropical ecosystems and may exceed the combined biomass of wild birds and mammals. Their success in so many environments has been attributed to their social organisation and ...