Adult ants cannot chew and ingest solid food directly. Instead, they primarily consume liquids and rely on a process involving their mandibles and a filtering mechanism.
Here's a breakdown of how ants process food:
- Cutting and Transporting: Ants use their mandibles (jaws) to cut solid food into smaller pieces. These pieces are then transported back to the nest.
- Liquid Diet of Adults: Adult ants have an infrabuccal plate, a structure in their mouth that filters out solid particles. This means they can only ingest liquids.
- Food Processing in the Colony: Once back at the nest, the food might be further processed by ant larvae. Larvae can consume solid food and then regurgitate it as liquid food for the adults. This process is known as trophallaxis.
In essence, ants break down food by:
- Using mandibles to physically break down solid food.
- Relying on larvae to process solid food into a liquid form suitable for adult consumption.
- Filtering out solid particles through the infrabuccal plate when consuming liquids.
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