Mondo Knows Facts
Archerfish shoot down insects using precise water jets
An archerfish squirts water from its mouth to knock prey into the water.
By pressing its tongue against a groove in the roof of its mouth, the archerfish forms a barrel to fire compressed water droplets at resting insects above the surface. It compensates for optical refraction at the water air boundary to hit targets up to two metres away.
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Tags: archerfish, fish, hunting
Archerfish shoot down insects using precise water jets: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- An archerfish squirts water from its mouth to knock prey into the water. The figure is taken from Natural History Museum, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a animals fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Animals shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.
