16 Mouthparts for Every Meal-High

Mouthparts for Every Meal FOCUS Question How do mouthparts help insects get food and eat it?

口器如何帮助昆虫获取食物并吃掉它?

Magnificent Mouthparts A hungry grasshopper crawls across a leaf. Chomp, chomp! Its sharp jaws open and close to bite off parts of the leaf. A smaller, second set of jaws helps break down the food into bite-sized pieces. The grasshopper's upper and lower lips keep the food from falling out before the insect pushes it into its mouth. Gulp! The grasshopper gets ready to take another bite of its dinner. All insects have mouthparts, but these tiny structures can be very different, depending on the insect's diet. Mouthparts help insects bite, chew, slurp, and more. Let's learn about these magnificent mouthparts.

一只饥饿的蚱蜢爬过一片叶子。 切齿,切齿!它锋利的双颚一开一合，咬下部分叶子。 另一副较小的下颚有助于将食物分解成一口大小的碎片。 蚱蜢的上下嘴唇可以防止食物在昆虫把食物塞进嘴里之前掉出来。 一大口!蚱蜢准备再吃一口它的晚餐。 所有昆虫都有口器，但这些微小的结构可能非常不同，这取决于昆虫的饮食。 口器帮助昆虫叮咬、咀嚼、发出声音等等。 让我们来了解一下这些华丽的口器。

Biting and Chewing Grasshoppers use their mouthparts for biting and chewing. Beetles, ants, caterpillars, and termites also chew their food. These insects munch on solid food such as leaves, wood, and even other insects. Strong jaws called mandibles help these insects bite, grind, and crush their food. Mandibles open and close sideways, like a pair of hands clapping. Behind these jaws are a smaller set of jaws called maxillae (mak-SILL-ee). Maxillae have fingerlike structures that allow an insect to taste the food. Maxillae also move the food around so the mandibles can bite and cut it.

蚱蜢用它们的口器来咬和嚼。 甲虫、蚂蚁、毛毛虫和白蚁也咀嚼食物。 这些昆虫咀嚼固体食物，如树叶、木头，甚至其他昆虫。 被称为下颌骨的强壮颌骨帮助这些昆虫咬、磨和压碎它们的食物。 下颌骨向侧面张开和闭合，就像双手在拍手一样。 在这些颌后面是一组较小的颌，称为上颌骨(maksill -ee)。 上颌骨有手指状的结构，可以让昆虫品尝食物。 上颌骨也可以移动食物，这样下颌骨就可以咬和切食物了。

Busy, Busy Bees Honeybees are busy little insects. They gather pollen and nectar from flowers. They have the same mouthparts as chewing insects, but these parts look a bit different. Their mandibles are smaller and are used for cutting or grasping. Bees often use them for collecting pollen or for carrying things in and out of their hive. Honeybees have a proboscis (pro-BOSS-sis) to help them drink nectar. Slurp! This long, hairy tongue works like a straw to suck up the sugary liquid. A honeybee's lower lip, or labium, forms this tube-shaped mouthpart.

忙碌的蜜蜂蜜蜂是忙碌的小昆虫。 它们从花朵中采集花粉和花蜜。 它们有和咀嚼昆虫一样的口器，但这些部分看起来有点不同。 它们的下颌骨较小，用于切割或抓取。 蜜蜂经常用它们来收集花粉或把东西运进运出蜂巢。 蜜蜂有一个喙(pro-BOSS-sis)来帮助它们喝花蜜。 发出声音!这种长而多毛的舌头就像吸管一样吸走了这种含糖液体。 蜜蜂的下唇，或者叫唇，形成了这个管状的口器。

Slurp and Siphon Like bees, butterflies have mouthparts suited to drinking nectar from flowers. A butterfly's proboscis is very long. It sits curled up underneath the head. When the butterfly finds a tasty flower, it uncurls its proboscis and dips it into the nectar like a straw. It then siphons, or sucks, out the nectar. When the butterfly is done drinking, it rolls its tongue back up! Moths have similar types of mouthparts. The proboscis of a hawk moth can be up to 33 centimeters (13 in.) long!

和蜜蜂一样，蝴蝶也有适合从花中吸取花蜜的口器。 蝴蝶的喙很长。 它蜷缩在头部下方。 当蝴蝶发现一朵美味的花时，它会展开它的长鼻，像吸管一样把它浸入花蜜中。 然后它会吸出花蜜。 当蝴蝶喝完后，它会把舌头卷起来!飞蛾有类似类型的口器。 鹰蛾的长鼻可达33厘米(13英寸)长!

Metamorphosis for Mouthparts When a caterpillar hatches from an egg, it's ready to eat! Its sharp mandibles bite off the edges of a leaf. The maxillae break up the food even more. The caterpillar's upper and lower lips— the labrum and labium— push the meal toward its mouth. Weeks later, the insect emerges from its cocoon. It's now a butterfly. It drinks nectar and no longer has mandibles. Its maxillae have formed into a proboscis. The lower lip has changed into labial palps, which help it sense food. This kind of physical change is called a metamorphosis. A caterpillar has mouthparts for chewing. After the metamorphosis, a butterfly has mouthparts for sucking liquid food.

当毛毛虫从卵中孵化出来，它就可以吃了!它锋利的下颌骨咬掉了叶子的边缘。 上颌会把食物分解得更厉害。 毛虫的上下唇——唇瓣和唇瓣——把食物推向嘴里。 几周后，昆虫破茧而出。 它现在是一只蝴蝶。它喝花蜜，不再有下颚。 它的上颌骨已经形成了长鼻。 下唇变成了唇触须，帮助它感知食物。 这种物理变化被称为变态。 毛虫有咀嚼用的口器。 在蜕变之后，蝴蝶有了用来吸液体食物的口器。