Biology 201

The Food and Feeding Lab

Use these photographs and on-line videos to help understand how animals feed.

1. Feeding on Particulate Matter

1.1 plankton: barnacles, basking shark 

1.2 detritus

2. Feeding on Fluids

2.1 blood: vampire, mosquito

Note in the two photos to the right that the mosquito (left) has a proboscis specialized for piercing, the horse fly (right) has an absorbent pad on the end for mopping up blood.

 

horse fly video: the interesting stuff starts at 54 s. Watch how the mandibles are used to open the wound.

2.2 haemolymph

This is the equivalent to blood in invertebrates.

Giant Water Bug - short, stout proboscis video from Scientific American
2.3 sap: aphids, froghopper
2.4 nectar: Hover Fly, Hummingbird, Butterfly

 

3. Introduction to teeth

3.1 basic mammalian tooth types: Porcupine, Bobcat

3.2 tooth-like structures merganser   grasshopper   wasp

Just an incredible video of a dragonfly nymph hunting...it is successful later in the video.

3.3 toothlessness

        Double-crested Cormorant:    Great Blue Heron: 

4. Feeding on Animals

4.1a Slippery food: the common feature at this station was the shape and usually the large number of the teeth.

 

Note the conical, slightly recurved teeth - perfect for holding something slippery. Dolphins have tons more teeth than this mammal, but the effect is the same. Most fish have conical teeth, too.

 

4.1b Slippery food, a different approach. 

            No extant bird has teeth, though the mergansers which you saw in lab have analogs to them. How then do cormorants, herons and, other fish eaters hold their food? Brute force.

Gannets feeding, St. Peter's Bay, Cape Breton.

 

4.2 Small mammals as food: mouse

4.3 Parasites: the dog tapeworm

 

5. Feeding on Plants

5.2 Green stuff: snail leaf miner This photo shows the tunnels of leaf miners in a water lily leaf. The miners are so-named because they exist within the leaf and feed on its contents from within.

5.3 Wood: termite

5.4 Seeds: mouse

5.5 Pollen: bee   



 
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R.F. Lauff
Department of Biology
St. Francis Xavier University
Antigonish, NS Canada B2G 2W5