ABSTRACT
Bites by arthropods can be as medically significant as stings, especially for hypersensitive individuals. In this chapter, I have lumped all bites together for discussion. However, the term bite probably should be restricted in meaning to purposeful biting by species for either catching prey or blood feeding and not to accidental or inadvertent biting by plant-feeding species. Phytophagous or predaceous insect species may “bite” in self-defense, piercing the skin with their proboscis, but the injury is actually a stab wound and not a true bite.
