• Hjalmar@feddit.nu
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    7 days ago

    Can they actually bite using those things or are there just there to look scary?

    • Saeveo@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      On the Giant Water Bug (bottom left) they aren’t even mouthparts, those are it’s first pair of legs.

    • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      Afaik, only the ant bites. The others use them for flinging opponents or grappling with them.

      Unlike me, I grapple so I can bite

      • Hjalmar@feddit.nu
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        6 days ago

        I’m getting very mixed answers here (someone else said that’s it’s legs

        • Barx [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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          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 but sometimes mandibles help with that.

          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.