03 Insect Mouhpart Variations

[@gooeykit6074]

I don't know if you're a teacher or something out there making these videos for students, but as someone who works on creature design, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Already, very few words you've said in these videos have opened up many avenues for research of things I've been struggling to find myself for years.

[@llkeeley]

I was Professor of Entomology in the Department of Entomology of Texas A&M University for 37 years and taught Graduate and undergraduate Insect Physiology. I do the KZbin animations as a hobby in retirement and to provide knowledge for students about insects and animal physiology and biochemistry. I am happy you enjoy them and find them useful. LK

[@RyuzakiHirokai]

I also do creature design, so it's nice to see I'm not the only one!

[@gooeykit6074]

@@RyuzakiHirokai omg yaaaay!

[@kofipapa2886]

​@@llkeeleywould you take me in and help me to study the practical of it. I am a life science teacher who wants to prepare and grow the interest of my students for nature. I hope you respond. I can only hope though.

[@normamujica2338]

Muchas gracias Dr. Keeley por los videos tan didácticos

[@PHOENIX-ns8kj]

Thank you so much 🥰 that absolutely a fantastic video 🔥

[@soulbend]

Are there any interesting intermediary species that use something in between mandibles and a proboscis? I never realized that the two ways of feeding have similarly adapted appendages. Thanks for this video! I've always wondered what's going on in a bug's complicated looking mouth.

[@Jason-o5s]

Cheer~~~a structure corresponding to a lip, especially the upper border of the mouthparts of a crustacean or insect and the jaw or a jawbone, especially the lower jawbone in mammals and fishes and the jaw or jawbone, specifically the upper jaw in most vertebrates. In humans it also forms part of the nose and eye socket and hypopharynx and a fused mouthpart which forms the floor of the mouth of an insect.😊

[@rhow_lland18]

the video is quite complicated

[@llkeeley]

So are insects' mouths. :>)

[@kofipapa2886]

The video can be complicated if you don't get the proper orientation to its understanding. I suspect you don't have a background in such matters. But look at this way: insect mouth is in some way like our mouth but not entirely so. We have our lips and so do they. We have jaws and so do they. We have our tongue and so so they. So now let us learn the language we use when talking about insect mouth parts. Instead of upper lip insect scientists say labrum. For me the letter *u* in labrum is a cue that reminds me that it is the upper lip...lol. Little memory aid. Labium is the lower lip. When feeding we sometimes want to know how things taste before we ingest right? Insects have palps for that: to taste food. Mandibles are toothed jaws. They are for cutting. Maxillae are cut too but they are more for grinding the food, manipulating the food into the mouth and things like that. They tend to have palps to determine texture and taste of the food. In the video you saw, these parts have been modified to perform slightly different functions. The labrum covers the rest of the mouth parts when they are not feeding. The labium forms a sheath around the needles and suction tubes. The labium surrounds and protects the stylets which are referred to previously as needles and tubes. There are six structures altogether inside the labial sheath or labium for short. The mandibles( a pair)are for cutting. They cut/ puncture/ break the skin of the victim. Two other structures either of the mandibles or maxillae( more likely than not )hold apart the skin at the place where it is broken so that they don't reaneal. Sorry that is the best word I could muster. Then the maxillae forms two channels: one for introducing saliva to prevent the clotting of the blood that is going to be sucked. The saliva contains anticoagulants and may also contain parasites( bacteria, protists and viruses). This is how we get malaria and those other diseases. So that channel is the saliva/ secretory channel or lacinia.The other channel formed by the maxillae is called food channel. It is also called galea. It is used to siphon or suck up blood. Do you see the thing in your mind's eye now? I hope you do.