Читать книгу Extreme Insects - Richard Jones - Страница 32

The most obvious purpose of jaws is eating. But this is really a secondary use, because plenty of insects eat without the aid of jaws. There is an even more basic function – biting. An insect may bite to catch and kill prey, to manipulate soil or cut leaf particles, or to chew a burrow into wood. Each of these behaviours requires its own type of jaws. And the insect with the most remarkable jaws uses them for a most remarkable behaviour.

Grant’s stag beetle, Chiasognathus granti, is sometimes also called Darwin’s stag beetle because he pondered on it in his famous book The Descent of Man