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UPSC Prelims 1984 · Environment · Species Watch
What is the common feature in insects like ant and cockroach?
- (a) They bite and chew their food
- (b) They live in temperate climate conditions
- (c) They have cutting and sucking type of mouth parts
- (d) They are social insects
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: (a) They bite and chew their food
Ants and cockroaches have biting and chewing (mandibulate) mouthparts.
The idea
An insect’s mouth is built for its food. Ants and cockroaches eat solid food, so both have strong jaws that bite and chew. Insects that take liquid food have a tube instead.
Biting and chewing: cockroach, ant, grasshopper, beetle → Sucking through a coiled tube: butterfly → Piercing and sucking: mosquito, bug → Sponging: housefly
Why the others are wrong
(b) Both live in many climates, including the tropics.
(c) Cutting-sucking mouthparts are found in insects like horseflies, not ants and cockroaches.
(d) Ants are eusocial; cockroaches generally are not.
The trap
(d) is true of ants but not cockroaches — “common” means both.
Also know
This matters for pest control. A poison sprayed on leaves kills chewing insects that eat the leaf. Sap-sucking insects are reached better by a poison that the plant absorbs into its sap.
🔒 Chewing: cockroach, ant, grasshopper · Sucking: butterfly · Piercing-sucking: mosquito · Sponging: housefly.