How does a slug move?

Moving Slug

A slug is a cautious creature something like a snail, but without a shell.  Slugs are famous for the “sluggish” pace  at which they travel.  You’ve probably seen a slug creeping along on a part of its body that seems to be its stomach.  Actually the bottom part of the slug’s body is really its “foot”.  The muscles in the slug’s foot move in a wavelike motion that causes the slug to glide slowly along.  It leaves a glistening train of slim behind it as it crawls. 

This serves as a slippery path to help the slug slide along more easily.  The goo also protects the slug’s body as it crawls over sharp rocks and twigs.  Slugs live in moist places.  They are often found under logs and stones.  Slugs are often garden pests because they eat plants.  To help them eat, the tongue of a slug has hundreds of tiny “teeth”  with which if files away bits of food. 

Photo courtesy:  hortipm

 

How does a frog catch its food?

Insect Eating Frog

The frogs catches insects and other small food animals on the sticky tip of its long tongue. 

All summer long, the little frog squats, motionless, on the bank of a quiet pond or brook and watches for passing insects.  If a fly or cricket passes within reach, the frog’s long tongue will snap out like a flickering whip, so fast that you can scarcely follow the action.  The insect is caught on the sticky tip.  Just as quickly the frog flips its tongue back into its mouth. 

The frog’s tongue is fastened at the front of its mouth, not the back, so that it can be flipped out a long way.  The frog’s mouth is equipped with feeble, practically useless teeth, which are present only in the upper jaw.  So it must live mostly on small creatures that it can swallow in one gulp.  Frogs also eat earthworms, spiders and minnows that they catch in the water.  Toads capture their food in much of same way frogs do.  Frogs and toads help man by eating many harmful insects to be found in gardens and on farms. 

Photo courtesy:  dpughphoto

 

“Why do we have two sets of teeth?”

Sets of Teeth

OUR SECOND SET OF TEETH ARE STRONGER REPLACEMENTS FOR THE SMALLER BABY TEETH AS THE JAWS CHANGE AND CROW BIGGER

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Everyone grows two sets of teeth:  a first (primary), or baby teeth, and a second, or permanent set.

 

Nature has given us two sets.  Teeth small enough for a child would be too little for use by an adult.

 

When we are born we have, hidden in our jaws, the beginning of all our teeth.  Our first set of teeth begin to push up through the gums when we are about 6 months old.  Most of us have all our baby teeth at the age of 2 ½ or 3.

 

In the meantime, our second set is forming in the jaws.  At about the age of 6 our baby teeth become loose and fall out, and permanent teeth grow in their place.

 

As the jaws grow larger, more teeth push, up until finally we have our full set of 32 permanent teeth.

 

The last four teeth are slow to grow.  They do not push up until we are nearly grown up.  Bu that time we are supposed to have gained some wisdom, so these last teeth are called “wisdom teeth.”