Fleas have which type of mouthparts?

• A. Sucking mouthparts
• B. Only adults have wings
• C. Dog flea most common
• D. Mouthparts used for chewing

Answer: (A)

Fleas feed on blood, so their mouthparts are specialized for piercing flesh and sucking liquid blood. This is a piercing-sucking arrangement: slender stylets slide into the host’s skin to puncture tissue and create a channel through which blood is drawn, often aided by saliva that helps prevent clotting. They don’t chew their food, which is why chewing mouthparts would be incorrect for fleas. The other statements don’t describe how fleas feed: they are wingless, so that fact isn’t related to mouthparts, and identifying a particular flea species as the most common doesn’t address the feeding mechanism.