Digestion in our bodies is the process of breaking down food both mechanically and chemically into substances that can be used by cells. Why? The food broken down becomes used for energy for our bodies. This is a process called cellular respiration. This happens in all forms of life. Cellular respiration takes in food and uses it to create ATP, a chemical which the cell uses for energy. ATP stands for adenosine tri-phosphate. ATP transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism. [1]
Human Digestion
The mouth is the beginning of the digestive system. Here, after chewing the food, your saliva mixes with food to begin the process of breaking it down into a form your body can absorb and use.[2]
Our stomachs have acids and powerful enzymes that break down the food. It becomes liquid-like paste after being broken down. From there the food moves to the small intestine. Humans have nutrients absorbed through the use of villi in our small intestine which increase surface area. Our blood transports the important substances (like glucose) to our body. It also helps to repair and grow tissues. Glucose, aka the "sugar" is essential in cellular respiration and the production of energy. The essential formula is the following. glucose+oxygen-> carbon dioxide+ water+ ATP(energy) |
The Normal Diet...
These creatures are carnivores; their diet consists of insects such as meal worms, crickets, mosquitoes, flies (the obvious one, and even other spiders!
Wolf spiders often will capture a prey item by grabbing the prey and then the spider will flip over onto its back while holding the prey item in its fangs. This may be particularly useful when grabbing a cricket as the strong jumping legs of the cricket could puncture the spiders abdomen. A good class project would be to determine the range of prey items a particular spider could eat. Depending on the size of the prey, spiders can be offered food daily; they also do fine eating once or twice a week. A good rule of thumb for the size of the prey is to offer spiders prey their own size or smaller. [3]
How Do They Digest Their Food?
Firstly, they capture their prey with venomous fangs (When the prey is near the spider bites it sending it's poisonous venom into the prey which makes the prey's tissue turn into mush so it is easy for the spider to eat it.) and the food is broken down with their jaw, also known as the coxa. Their, maxillca, or teeth, are used to protect and mash food particles that cannot be digested. After passing through the esophagus, it enters the stomach. Directly after the stomach the food enters the small intestines. The food enlarges the midgut in order to branch out the digestive diverticula, which we actaully call the large intestines.