Comment on Mandibles
Barx@hexbear.net 6 days agoThe lower left is a toe biter water bug with one of the most painful venoms on the planet
Comment on Mandibles
Barx@hexbear.net 6 days agoThe lower left is a toe biter water bug with one of the most painful venoms on the planet
Hjalamanger@feddit.nu 6 days ago
I’m getting very mixed answers here (someone else said that’s it’s legs
TheMetaleek@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
They are its legs, however they are heavily modified legs made for strongly grappling prey
Barx@hexbear.net 5 days ago
Ohhh. Well the big parts that grab stuff are mandibles. They aren’t legs but they originate, evolutinarily speaking, from legs. Same with antennae! The parts closer to the head do the eating.
For venomous arthropods sometimes it’s the mandibles that have the venom (like spiders, where they are called Chelicerae), for some it’s saliva and they use various mouthparts (the water bug uses a proboscus), for some it’s their tail end (like ants), etc etc.