What is the largest type of mosquito?
918501#0
Toxorhynchites, also called elephant mosquito or mosquito eater, is a genus of diurnal and often relatively colorful mosquitoes, found worldwide between about 35° north and 35° south. It includes the largest known species of mosquito, at up to in length and in wingspan. It is among the many kinds of mosquito that do not consume blood. The adults subsist on carbohydrate-rich materials, such as honeydew, or saps and juices from damaged plants, refuse, fruit, and nectar.
Toxorhynchites
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Mosquitoes of the genus "Toxorhynchites" never drink blood. This genus includes the largest extant mosquitoes, the larvae of which prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes. These mosquito eaters have been used in the past as mosquito control agents, with varying success.
Mosquito
9093#121
There are approximately 30 non-flying Mosquitos around the world with four airworthy examples, two in the United States, one in Canada and one in New Zealand. The largest collection of Mosquitos is at the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre in the United Kingdom, which owns three aircraft, including the first prototype, "W4050", the only initial prototype of a Second World War British aircraft design still in existence in the 21st century.
De Havilland Mosquito
59441924#2
Mosquitos belong to the biological Order of Diptera (which includes all two-winged insects), suborder Nematocera, family Culicidea. There are >3,500 different mosquito species with the Aedes and Culex genera being common in North America. It is assumed that any species of mosquito that causes an ordinary mosquito bite reaction in humans is capable of causing MBA. In addition to mosquitoes, the Diptera order includes numerous other types of biting insects such as midges (e.g. sand flies) and gnats. Bites by the latter insects or possibly some other insects may cause reactions that are mechanistically and clinically similar to those seen with mosquito bites.
Mosquito bite allergy
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The length of the adult is typically between 3mm and 6mm. The smallest known mosquitoes are around , and the largest around . Mosquitoes typically weigh around 5 mg. All mosquitoes have slender bodies with three segments: a head, a thorax and an abdomen.
Mosquito
6615539#1
The subfamily Culicinae is the largest subfamily of Culicidae, a family of Nematocera dipterans. There are 3,046 species of Culicinae mosquitoes, in 108 genera and 11 tribes. Members of the Culicinae subfamily are small flies with fore wings for flight and hind wings reduced to halteres for balance. The mosquitoes also have long, slender, legs and proboscis-style mouth parts for feeding on vertebrate blood or plant fluids. Only the females are blood feeders, requiring a high quality protein meal before they can oviposit. Because the mosquitoes are well adapted for finding hosts, the females can move quickly from one blood meal to another, and when injecting their saliva, can inject pathogens picked up from other hosts and thus efficiently spread disease.
Culicinae
542071#42
Most "Anopheles" mosquitoes are crepuscular (active at dusk or dawn) or nocturnal (active at night). Some feed indoors (endophagic), while others feed outdoors (exophagic). After feeding, some blood mosquitoes prefer to rest indoors (endophilic), while others prefer to rest outdoors (exophilic), though this can differ regionally based on local vector ecotype, and vector chromosomal makeup, as well as housing type and local microclimatic conditions. Biting by nocturnal, endophagic "Anopheles" mosquitoes can be markedly reduced through the use of insecticide-treated bed nets or through improved housing construction to prevent mosquito entry (e.g. window screens). Endophilic mosquitoes are readily controlled by indoor spraying of residual insecticides. In contrast, exophagic/exophilic vectors are best controlled through source reduction (destruction of the breeding sites).
Anopheles
49356589#4
The WRBU assists in conserving the NMNH Mosquito Collection, the largest mosquito collection in the world, with over 1.5 million specimens. The WRBU maintains and secures specimens, handles transactions including loans of material, improves the collection, provides assistance to Department of Entomology personnel, Smithsonian Institution Research Associates, visiting scientists, and mosquito researchers in locating and examining specimens in the collection.
Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit
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First field trials were performed on Grand Cayman, the largest island of the Cayman Islands, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, starting in 2009. Approximately 3.3 million of the transgenic male "Aedes aegypti" mosquitoes were released. The experiments demonstrated that the animals were able to survive in this environment and produce offspring. Some eleven weeks after the release, a decline in the "A. aegypti" mosquito population by about 80% was observed. Larger-scale releases could result in higher reductions. The tests were deemed a success by scientists but criticism emerged over communication policy. In May 2016 Grand Cayman announced a program to use Oxitec mosquitoes to combat the virus. The first phase informed the community about the programme. The next phase treated an area with about 1,800 residents in West Bay and 88% less "Aedes aegypti" mosquito eggs were found compared to an equivalent untreated area.
Oxitec
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The oldest known mosquito with an anatomy similar to modern species was found in 79-million-year-old Canadian amber from the Cretaceous. An older sister species with more primitive features was found in Burmese amber that is 90 to 100 million years old. Two mosquito fossils have been found that show very little morphological change in modern mosquitoes against their counterpart from 46 million years ago. These fossils are also the oldest ever found to have blood preserved within their abdomens. Despite no fossils being found earlier than the Cretaceous, recent studies suggest that the earliest divergence of mosquitoes between the lineages leading to Anophelinae and Culicinae occurred 226 million years ago.
Mosquito