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Overview of mouthparts of insects

Insects have mouthparts that may vary greatly across insect species, as they are adapted to particular modes of feeding.

The earliest insects had chewing mouthparts. Most specialisation of mouthparts are for piercing and sucking, and this mode of feeding has evolved a number of times independently.

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For example, mosquitoes (which are true flies) and aphids (which are true bugs) both pierce and suck, though female mosquitoes feed on animal blood whereas aphids feed on plant fluids.

Evolution

Like most external features of arthropods, the mouthparts of Hexapoda are highly derived.

Insect mouthparts show a multitude of different functional mechanisms across the wide diversity of insect species. It is common for significant homology to be conserved, with matching structures forming from matching primordia, and having the same evolutionary origin.

However, even if structures are almost physically and functionally ident