Question

The mouthparts of anopheles are adapted to
A. Biting and chewing type feeding
B. Piercing and sucking type feeding
C. Chewing type feeding
D. Sucking type feeding

Answer 1

Hint: The female mosquito has mouthparts that pierce food items to enable the sucking of internal fluids. In female mosquitoes, all mouthparts are elongated. The mouth part of a mosquito includes the labium, labrum, mandibles, maxillae, hypopharynx. The adult mosquito has a needle-like structure that helps in piercing into the skin and sucking the blood.

Complete answer:
- When malaria-causing Anopheles mosquitoes come out at night to look for blood, they track the carbon dioxide we exhale when we sleep. As they come closer to the body, they detect body heat and substances called volatile fatty acids.
- The mosquito life cycle consists of egg, larva, pupa, and adult stages. The labium is a fused mouthpart that forms the floor and encloses all other mouthparts like a sheath. The labrum is the main feeding tube, which helps in blood sucking. Paired mandibles and maxillae are present, together they form the style. It is used to pierce the skin.
- The labium remains outside the skin while piercing, folding away from the style.
- The Saliva containing anticoagulants is injected in the body and blood is sucked out, each through different tubes.
- The adult females have tube-like mouthparts (called a proboscis) that can pierce the skin of a host and feed on blood.
- The proboscis is a sophisticated system of needle-like mouthparts called stylets (six thin needles), each of which pierces the skin, finds blood vessels, and makes it easy for mosquitoes to suck blood.
- The mosquito's saliva is transferred to the host during the bite. While biting many pathogens are ingested and get transmitted to future hosts.
- Mosquitoes are important vectors of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever,
- The needles, called maxillae, have tiny teeth that are so sharp that you can barely feel the mosquito biting.
- The labrum is shaped like a gutter. To become a straw, it needs another mouth part to lay over it. The sixth needle hypopharynx serves as a dual purpose; it also allows the mosquito to drool saliva into the blood. As it contains chemicals that keep our blood flowing.
- When the mosquito’s gut fills up with blood, she separates the water in the blood from the red blood cells and squeezes it out through her rear end.
- So, the mouthparts of anopheles are adapted to biting and chewing type feeding.

Hence, the correct answer is option (A).

Note: Mosquito saliva blocks the hemostasis system, reduces vascular constriction, blood clotting. The saliva causes itchy welts and serves as a conduit for dangerous viruses and parasites. Mosquitos saliva can be used in the development of anti-clotting drugs, such as clotting inhibitors. A large part of the mosquitoes uses the sense of smell or olfactory system.