Assassin Bug

Reduviidae; Harpactorinae; Harpactorini; Rhynocoris fuscipes (Fabricius, 1787). As you can see, in the photos, this Assassin Bug has stabbed a fly with its "beak" and is going about the business of eating it. Until a couple of years ago, I had no idea how this worked. I thought that the proboscis was used for killing the prey, by stabbing through the insects exoskeleton and sipping out the innards by suction. I was partly correct, but there is an important detail that I was not aware of. What is really going on, in the bug's mouth parts is as follows: The labium which is a tube, made from very strong chitin, is used for stabbing the prey, but that is only part of the process. There is another tube, the proboscis which is made of a more flexible material, something akin to that of intestines and it is slightly thinner than the labium. It is slipped down inside the labium. So, what really happens is that the labium does the heavy work, pushing through the the exoskeleton of the prey.. Then the proboscis slips down inside the labium and tastes the innards to make sure they are nice and tasty. Then it sucks up the innards of the prey. Nice!