this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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196
Mandibles (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] southsamurai 28 points 1 month ago

You get me closer to god

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My whole existence is flawed.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My whole existence is ~~flawed~~ jawed

You bring me closer to maw

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Hahaha. Yes.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Nine inch mandibles

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's kinda hot

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

You should start a sexy bug leg/mouthparts community.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Imagine some fishnets over those puppies

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

isn't that technically how it works for all arthropods? Anything vaguely limb-like is in fact a heavily derived leg, including antennae.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

These are real, current legs. The front 2 of the insect norm of 6

[–] southsamurai 12 points 1 month 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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The lower left is a toe biter water bug with one of the most painful venoms on the planet

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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

[–] TheMetaleek 6 points 1 month ago

They are its legs, however they are heavily modified legs made for strongly grappling prey

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

We don't deserve ants