The feeding apparatus of thrips

Abstract

Standard text-books on entomology (Imms, 1957; Ross, 1956) state that the insects of the order Thysanoptera feed by macerating leaf tissue with pointed stylets, and then suck the juices thus released by applying their mouth cone to the leaf surface.The drawings accompanying these statements indicate that the maxillary stylets and the single mandible are all simple acute needle-like structures. However, sections of the mouth cone including the stylets show that the mandible is a closed tubular structure, and that the maxillary stylets are grooved, i.e., C-shaped in section (Reyne,1927; Mickoleit, 1963). Moreover, Grasse (1951) states that although the maxillary stylets do not show the mutual adaptations found in the Hemiptera they do form a tube when fitted together, and Grinfel'd (1959) suggests that thrips may suck food through the tube formed by the stylets in addition to applying the mouth cone directly onto the food.