Aiming to improve the picking ability of the harvesting robot, a bite-model end-effector for citrus was designed. The design requirements of the end-effector were obtained by first investigation of the growth of citrus stem, the inclination of the stem and doing statistics was defined, and the shearing requirements of the stem extreme position was lastly analyzed. That the design of the bite-model end-effector can meet the design requirements by simulating the snake mouth structure which followed the snake’s biting action and the special structure of the snake’s mouth bones. Two design ideas were proposed by simplifying the structure of the snakehead skeleton. Based on this, the initial model of the two kinds of mechanism was designed respectively. After the preliminary kinematics analysis, the optimal scheme was determined and the initial model was optimized, and the three-dimensional model of the end-effector was determined. According to the three-dimensional model, the kinematics model of the end-effector was established, and the kinematics analysis and simulation were carried out to ensure the reasonable design of the mechanism. A bite-model end-effector prototype was manufactured, and then it was verified by the citrus harvesting robot developed by the research group in laboratory and outdoor environment. In laboratory environment, the experimental results showed that the cutting success rate was not less than 95% under the condition that the air pressure was 0.6MPa, the inclination of the stem was 0°, the stem diameter was no more than 4.0mm, and the overall cutting success rate for different stem inclinations was 97.5%. The total success rate of harvesting citrus in the outdoor environment was 87.5%.