Diptera-Mosquitos Flashcards
Why are mosquitoes important?
Most prominent blood sucking dipteran
Feed on pretty much every animal (even fish)
Require standing water for larval development
IM host for protozoan diseases (malaria) and filarial parasites (heartworm and wuchereria)
Vectors for yellow fever, dengue, equine viral encephalitides
Mosquito larval ID
Always aquatic
Lack eggs
Head, thorax, abdomen
One pair of spiracles
Mosquito adult ID
Tiny scales on wing veins, wing margins, thorax, and abdomen
Females have long pilose antennae
Males have long plumose
Long proboscis
Subfamilies of mosQ
Toxorhynchitine
Culicine
Anopheline
Toxorhynchitine
Very large
Females never feed on vertebrate blood
Predatory larva
Culicine
Have palpus, which is shorter than their proboscis
Anopheline
Palpus as long as their proboscis
Zoophilous mosQ
Prefer to feed on animals over humans
Anthropophilous mosQ
Prefer to feed on humans over animals
Anautogenous mosQ
Require blood meal to lay eggs
Autogenous mosQ
Do not require a blood meal to lay eggs
Culex spp
IM host for avian malaria
Viral vector for viral encephalitides
First half of life, feed on birds, second half feed on horses and humans
Aedes spp
Vector for yellow fever, dengue
Anopheles spp
IM host for plasmodium spp for malaria
How to control mosQ
Larvivorous fish
Beneficial mosQ larvae (Toxorhychitine mosQ larvae eat harmful mosQ larvae)
Sticky mustard seeds (like sticky mouse trap)
Parasitic nematodes
Drain breeding sites
Larvicidal compounds (ABATE) to breeding sites
