Do moths have a digestive system?
Because of their abundance, moths are major players at the bottom of the food chain. “They’re a huge source of food for bats,” Shepherd told OurAmazingPlanet. In fact, some moths have evolved defenses against their winged predators.
Some adult moths don’t eat at all. While some moths suck nectar, others don’t eat at all. The adult Luna moth, for instance, doesn’t even have a mouth. After it emerges from its cocoon, it lives for about a week.
But that’s not the luna moth’s only interesting feature. The insect doesn’t have a mouth or a digestive system. That’s because it only lives for about a week after leaving the cocoon, and it doesn’t ever eat. Although luna moths don’t have an appetite, they’re a favorite snack for bats.
1 Answer. No moths have no stomach. Th lavae have got a stomach which causes the hole in clothes. So when you next see a moth hole its not a moth hole its a lavae hole!
Some, like the Luna, Polyphemus, Atlas, Promethea, cecropia, and other large moths do not have mouth parts. This is possible because they live off the food stores from when they were a caterpillar, and only live a short time as an adult (roughly a week for some species).
Moths born without a mouth can’t eat, so they make up for it during their caterpillar stage. As caterpillars, they not only need the nutrients to survive hibernation, but to also sustain their short adult lives.
The chewing apparatus is transformed into a tube-like apparatus called a proboscis. Like butterflies, this tube provides a moth with a fluid-pumping mechanism to suck on a flower’s nectar, which then flows into its digestive tract and is excreted through its anus.
They typically emerge in the morning, leaving time to spread and dry their wings before their first night of flight. Adult luna moths do not eat at all, and therefore have only vestigial mouthparts and no digestive system. Their sole purpose in life is to reproduce. They have only about a week to do so before they die.
