Hi Squeaks!
Do you have your snacks ready for our picnic by the pond?
Oh, I see.
Squeaks is feeling anxious.
Our friend Juniper.
The Worm warned him that eating food outside might attract some hungry bugs and he's worried they're going to eat his food.
It's okay, Squeaks.
We have plenty of snacks to share.
And besides, not all insects like to eat food like this.
In fact, some insects can't eat food like this.
Well, insect mouths are very different than my mouth or yours.
For instance, while we have things like lips, teeth and tongues, an insect has a whole bunch of different parts to their mouth.
And depending on the species or type of insect, those parts can come in different shapes and sizes.
So two kinds of insect may have very different-looking mouths.
Can you think of why that might be?
That's okay.
There are lots of possible answers.
Maybe think about what you and I use our mouths for that an insect would, too.
Ooh, that's right!
Yes, we can all use our mouths to eat.
And not all insects eat the same things.
Some insects, at least during certain parts of their lives, only drink liquid like the sugary sweet nectar found in flowers.
Let's imagine we're one of those insects and this glass of water is a flower with some nectar inside.
If we're an insect, we can't lift the glass up to our mouths and pour the water in.
So how could we drink it?
Yes, we could use a straw!
And that's exactly why some insects have a long proboscis.
It acts like a built-in straw for them to drink the nectar that they need.
A proboscis is made from two mouthparts called maxillae.
They join together to form a long, skinny tube that's held together by hooks.
Imagine if you could stick your lips out in an O shape and make a really long straw!
A face straw!
I love it!
And these face straws can be really long.
The longest proboscis belongs to a moth called Wallace's sphinx moth, and it's up to 30 centimeters, or almost 12 inches long.
That's, like, this long!
It's longer than the rest of the moth's body.
Can you imagine having a mouth longer than the rest of you?
This species of moth uses their super-long proboscis to drink the nectar at the bottom of a similarly long flower called a Madagascar star orchid.
In fact, they're the only insect that has a long enough proboscis to slurp that yummy nectar up!
But not every insect with a proboscis drinks nectar.
There's another insect you've probably seen before that uses a proboscis to do something way different.
They use their proboscis to drink blood.
Yes, mosquitoes have a proboscis, too!
And after they use them to feed on us, they give us those itchy, red bumps we call mosquito bites.
But that mosquito didn't really bite us.
Instead, the proboscis pokes a hole in our skin.
So it's a little bit more like getting a shot at the doctor's office.
Oh yes, piercing a juice box with a straw, which I agree is a lot more fun to do.
You're right, Squeaks!
Insects can eat more than liquids like nectar and blood.
They can eat leaves, pollen, fruit, and even other insects.
And a face straw wouldn't help you eat all of those.
So insects that need to chew have a different shaped mouth.
They use mouthparts called mandibles to crush up their food.
That's right!
We've talked about mandibles before.
Lots of other animals, including humans, have a mandible.
Here's a little refresher.
Mandible is the scientific name for the bone of our lower jaw.
But while my mandible mostly moves up and down, when I chew, an insect's pair of mandibles crunches in from side to side.
And because some foods are much softer than other foods, different insects need to bite harder to chew their dinners.
Like how you have to crunch down on a carrot, but not on a banana.
That's a great question, Squeaks!
He wants to know what the strongest insect bite is.
The strongest biter out of all the insects is called a raspy cricket.
They mostly eat grasses, seeds, and sometimes other insects.
You're right, Squeaks.
None of that food is that tough to bite through.
But raspy crickets don't just use their mouths for eating.
They also use them for digging!
See, raspy crickets use their mandibles to burrow into tree trunks.
So they have to have really strong mouths to dig through that wood.
But even though they have the strongest mandibles, there's another insect that has way bigger mandibles.
Do you want to see it?
Alright, this is called a stag beetle.
Stag beetles get their name because people thought their giant mandibles looked like the antlers on a stag, which is a name for a male deer.
And those massive mandibles sure look impressive!
But stag beetles spend most of their lives looking very different.
After hatching from an egg, they spend several years living underground as a grub or larva.
No fake antlers in sight!
Now, Squeaks, based on what we've learned about mouths, what do you think this stag beetle uses its mandibles for?
Oh, using it to eat something really big?
That's a great guess!
But this beetle actually doesn't use their mandibles for eating at all.
They eat most of the food they need for their whole lives when they're a larva.
Adults will drink nectar, but they use their antler-like mandibles for something else.
Can you think of what that might be?
Maybe something that deer use their real antlers for?
Ooh, that's a great guess!
Yes, they use them to fight.
Male stag beetles will grab each other with their mandibles and fight over who gets to breed with female stag beetles.
And the males that have the bigger mandibles are more likely to win those fights and have more babies.
Yeah, they're just another amazing thing that we get to learn about in our world.
But you know what?
All this talk has got my tummy rumbling.
I'm ready to head outside and enjoy our picnic.
And maybe while we're outside, we can look for some insects to learn more about later.
How's that sound?
Awesome!
Squeaks and I are headed outside for our picnic.
If you want to keep learning about insects and all kinds of other things with us, be sure to hit the subscribe button and we'll see you next time here at the fort.
