Masticate: to chew.
Masticatory: formed for chewing or grinding; applied to the mouth parts and to the grinding structures in the gizzard.
Mastigium -ia: telescopic anal organs in certain caterpillars, serving to repel attacks of parasites.
Matrix: the formative substance from which cells and other structures are derived.
Maxilla: without any qualifying adjective, the second pair of jaws in a mandibulate insect; the most persistent when the mouth is modified, and represented by some functional part in all insects in which the mouth structures are useful: second maxillae, = the labium, or third pair of jaws in a mandibulate insect.
Maxillary: attached or belonging to the maxilla; e.g. palpi.
Maxillary palpi: the first pair of palpi, borne on the maxilla.
Maxillary pleurites: the lateral pieces, epimera and episterna of the maxillary segment.
Maxillary segment: the sixth segment of the head, bearing the maxillae.
Maxillary tendons: two slender rods in basal third of the muscid proboscis the remnant of the palpifer, to which muscles for flexing the proboscis are attached: see lora.