When a fly lands on your food, it first uses sensory organs on its feet to “smell” the food. Unlike the boy in the diagram, flies do not have teeth to bite a chuck out of food. The boy is able to dip his cookie into the glass of milk to make it softer is […]
How Do Flies Eat?
Flies have a special mouth part called a proboscis. Much like the way the boy in the photo is using a straw, a fly uses its proboscis to drink liquids. Since flies do not have teeth, can they eat solid foods? Yes, and it really is gross, so get prepared: Flies vomit their stomach contents […]
Insect Proboscis
Fly Straws Flies don’t chew their food like we do. Instead they drink their food through a straw-like mouth part called a proboscis. We don’t have to drink our food, but sometimes it is fun, especially if you have fun straws. Drinking liquids through a straw is easy, but if the food is very thick […]
Fly Digestion
Barfing Flies Did You Know…Flies taste with their feet? Insects have taste organs which are usually located on their mouth parts; but some insects, such as house flies can taste with their feet. When a fly walks on your pizza, nerves in the fly’s feet detect the presence of different chemicals in the food and […]
Necturing
Unlike caterpillars, adult butterflies do not have mouth parts that can cut and chew food. Instead, they exhibit a feeding behavior called necturing, which means to sip the nectar from flowers. Butterflies have a long feeding tube, called a proboscis. This tube remains coiled when not in use as shown in the photo (right). When […]