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.
Can they actually bite using those things or are there just there to look scary?
On the Giant Water Bug (bottom left) they aren’t even mouthparts, those are it’s first pair of legs.
That’s kinda hot
You should start a sexy bug leg/mouthparts community.
Imagine some fishnets over those puppies
isn’t that technically how it works for all arthropods? Anything vaguely limb-like is in fact a heavily derived leg, including antennae.
These are real, current legs. The front 2 of the insect norm of 6
Afaik, only the ant bites. The others use them for flinging opponents or grappling with them.
Unlike me, I grapple so I can bite
The lower left is a toe biter water bug with one of the most painful venoms on the planet
I’m getting very mixed answers here (someone else said that’s it’s legs
They are its legs, however they are heavily modified legs made for strongly grappling prey
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.