Mosquitoes are insects belonging to the order Diptera, species include Anopheles, Culex and Aedes and some 2500 others. They have two scaled wings, a slender body and long legs, size varies but is rarely greater than 15mm.
In female mosquitoes the mouthparts form a long proboscis for piercing the skin of mammals to suck their blood. The females require protein for egg development, and since the normal mosquito diet consists of nectar and fruit juice, which has no protein, they must drink blood to get the necessary protein. Males differ from females with mouthparts not suitable for blood sucking.
The mosquito goes through four distinct stages in its life cycle: Egg, Larva, Pupae, and Adult. The length of the first three stages is species and temperature dependent. Culex tarsalis may complete its life cycle in 14 days at 20 deg. C and only ten days at 25 deg. C. Some species have a life cycle of as little as four days or up to one month.
"Mosquito" is a Portuguese word meaning little fly, and its use dates back to about 1583.
Some mosquitoes are capable of transmitting protozoan diseases such as malaria, filarial diseases like filariasus and viral diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, encephalitis, and West Nile virus.
External references:
- Mosquito Genomics WWW Server http://klab.agsci.colostate.edu/