Mantis mouth

Great response to yesterday's macro, even beat Cher to pole in spotlight, that is just not right, but many thanks for that.

While your eyes were adjusted for close encounters, I thought I would follow up with a detailed study of a mantis mouth. It has always fascinated me, as it seemed more complex than other insects mouths. In fact, after some research, I find that it is the same as most other insects, except all the finger like parts are just a bit longer and more visible on such a large insect as the flower mantis.

To get the shot, I had to persuade him onto my hand and place him on an overhead branch. After collecting about fifty images I said thank you and returned him to his flower head. He didn't seem too fussed about the ordeal, so all was well. This may be considered cheating, but there was no other way to get the angle that I wanted.

Explanation of Dragon mouthparts

Dragonflies are chewing insects and their mouth construction is the same as beetles and grasshoppers. Other types of insects are piercing and sucking bugs such as aphids, assassin bugs and of course mosquitoes. The third type is sponging insects such as the house fly.

Here we are only dealing with the chewing insect mouth of the mantis.

Starting from the top, the roof of the mouth is a single plate called the labrum, kind of the top lip. Unfortunately not visible in this picture due to the low angle, but can be seen on any mantis image that shows the face.

Underneath the labrum a pair of mandibles. These are used for masticating, meaning to cut, tear, crush and chew the unfortunate meal. This is the part on a dragonfly that can give you a nip, strong enough to make you let go in a hurry. I have never been bitten by a mantis though. The mandibles have the strongest muscles and attach just under the eye, at the top of the throat.

Next is a pair of maxilla. These are used to manipulate the food for the mandibles to work on, a bit like our tongue. It has five prongs, a bit like a meat fork. Attached towards the rear of each maxilla is a finger like palp. This can be seen in the image coming over the top of the mandible, right to the front. This serves as a feeler, to investigate the food shape, form and edibility if that is indeed a word.

The bottom part of the mouth, the chin or floor of the dragon mouth is the labium. This has gone through many changes in evolution and is currently several plates fused together. The labium too has a pair of feeler palps, one each side, serving the same function as the maxilla palps of investigation. They can be seen in the image to come under the chin and touch the tips of the maxilla palps right at the front, making a cross formation.

Well that wasn't too heavy, but to soak it all in, you would probably have to read a few times. Most of the information comes from Wiki, but I did soak up a few snippets from other sources. Here are a couple of links to the wiki and wiki diagram that might help.

A bit gory, but I hope you like it.

Dave