Mosquito
Mouthparts

Female mosquito mouthparts are highly adapted to piercing skin and sucking blood. Males only drink sugary fluids, and have less specialized mouthparts.

Externally, the most obvious feeding structure of the mosquito is the proboscis, composed of the labium, U-shaped in section like a rain gutter, which sheaths a bundle (fascicle) of six piercing mouthparts or stylets. These are two mandibles, two maxillae, the hypopharynx, and the labrum. The labium bends back into a bow when the mosquito begins to bite, staying in contact with the skin and guiding the stylets downwards. The extremely sharp tips of the labrum and maxillae are moved backwards and forwards to saw their way into the skin, with just one thousandth of the force that would be needed to penetrate the skin with a needle, resulting in a painless insertion.
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