Solid-to-liquid feeding: The inside(s) story of extra-oral digestion in predaceous Arthropoda

Abstract

The study of extra-oral digestion is of general interest because it helps explain the success of over 80% of the predaceous families of the phylum Arthropoda (Cohen 1995), the phylum whose members comprise over three-quarters of the known animal species (Wilson 1992). Extra-oral digestion especially is interesting because it involves the integration of several levels of biological organization-biochemical, physiological, morphological, and behavioral adaptations-all within an ecological and evolutionary context. It also is fascinating because it is so alien to our way of eating that it challenges our world-view about what most of us feel is a mundane process.