Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Arthro-Pod EP 130: Eat, digest, poop- how insects eat

 

Insects are extremely diverse. Part of that diversity is apparent in the ways that they consume their preferred food. Today, inspired by an anonymous listener question, the Arthro-Pod gang goes over the different types of insect mouths and how they help insects to begin the process of digestion. Then join them as they traverse the three "guts" of insects and end up on the other side of the anus with insect frass. It's an episode with lots of colorful descriptions and turns of phrase, that's for sure. 

Insect mouths come in different shapes and perform different jobs but they contain the same parts across most of the board; a labrum, the mandibles, maxillae, the hypopharnyx, and the labium



Chewing mouths are the most common of all mouths, found on predators and herbivores such as this grasshopper



Chewing-lapping mouthparts can chew pollen and help with lapping up honey and nectar


Siphoning mouthparts are unique, they have been modified to curl up and unfurl and help slurp up nectar

Piercing-sucking mouthparts can be used to suck juices from plants, or as this wheel bug would do, to suck the juices from prey

Sponging mouthparts are found on many flies, they use these to acquire liquid food

Show notes

https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/bug-bytes/digestive-system/

https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~rider/Pentatomoidea/Teaching%20Structure/Lecture%20Notes/Week%2011a%20Digestive%20System.pdf

Some of Jody's favorite bug poo

Drywood termite frass is quite distinct

Tomato hornworm frass is often compared to the shape of a hand grenade

Here a tortoise shell beetle uses frass as a defensive shield


Questions? Comments? 

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This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/



Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0