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The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function

Ants are a dominant family of eusocial terrestrial insects with a diversity of ecologies, lifestyles and morphologies. Ant diet preferences range from strict carnivory through omnivory to almost complete herbivory in species feeding on seeds or exudates of plant-sucking insects. While several studie...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Richter, Adrian, Economo, Evan P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10577024/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37839452
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0556
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author Richter, Adrian
Economo, Evan P.
author_facet Richter, Adrian
Economo, Evan P.
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description Ants are a dominant family of eusocial terrestrial insects with a diversity of ecologies, lifestyles and morphologies. Ant diet preferences range from strict carnivory through omnivory to almost complete herbivory in species feeding on seeds or exudates of plant-sucking insects. While several studies have investigated ant feeding performance on different substrates, comparatively little is known about the functional morphology of the structures involved in food uptake or their diversification across the ants. To take stock of our current knowledge, we give an overview of how adult ants ingest food, followed by a morphological description of the mouthparts, preoral space and cephalic sucking pump. The mandibles are the most prominent mouthparts and have received considerable attention in the literature, so we focus on the maxillae and labium here. We present current hypotheses for the movement patterns of these parts and discuss morphological differences among ants that may be related to their ecological diversity. Finally, we give short comparisons of the ant condition with some other insects and vertebrates, as well as an outlook summarizing gaps in our knowledge. This sets the stage for future studies elucidating the connections between ant feeding mechanisms and mouthpart evolution. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Food processing and nutritional assimilation in animals’.
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spelling pubmed-105770242023-10-16 The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function Richter, Adrian Economo, Evan P. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles Ants are a dominant family of eusocial terrestrial insects with a diversity of ecologies, lifestyles and morphologies. Ant diet preferences range from strict carnivory through omnivory to almost complete herbivory in species feeding on seeds or exudates of plant-sucking insects. While several studies have investigated ant feeding performance on different substrates, comparatively little is known about the functional morphology of the structures involved in food uptake or their diversification across the ants. To take stock of our current knowledge, we give an overview of how adult ants ingest food, followed by a morphological description of the mouthparts, preoral space and cephalic sucking pump. The mandibles are the most prominent mouthparts and have received considerable attention in the literature, so we focus on the maxillae and labium here. We present current hypotheses for the movement patterns of these parts and discuss morphological differences among ants that may be related to their ecological diversity. Finally, we give short comparisons of the ant condition with some other insects and vertebrates, as well as an outlook summarizing gaps in our knowledge. This sets the stage for future studies elucidating the connections between ant feeding mechanisms and mouthpart evolution. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Food processing and nutritional assimilation in animals’. The Royal Society 2023-12-04 2023-10-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10577024/ /pubmed/37839452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0556 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
Richter, Adrian
Economo, Evan P.
The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
title The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
title_full The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
title_fullStr The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
title_full_unstemmed The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
title_short The feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
title_sort feeding apparatus of ants: an overview of structure and function
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10577024/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37839452
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0556
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