Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a family of small flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word mosquito is Spanish and Portuguese for little fly. Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, one pair of wings, three pairs of long hair-like legs, and specialized, highly elongated, piercing-sucking mouthparts. All mosquitoes drink nectar from flowers; females of some species have in addition adapted to drink blood. Evolutionary biologists view mosquitoes as micropredators, small animals that parasitise larger ones by drinking their blood without immediately killing them. Medical parasitologists view mosquitoes instead as vectors of disease, carrying protozoan parasites or bacterial or viral pathogens from one host to another.
Aedes is a genus of mosquitoes originally found in tropical and subtropical zones, but now found on all continents except Antarctica. Some species have been spread by human activity: Aedes albopictus, a particularly invasive species, was spread to the Americas, including the United States, in the 1980s, by the used-tire trade.
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. Most species occur in forests. It includes the largest known species of mosquito, at up to 18 mm (0.71 in) in length and 24 mm (0.94 in) 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.
Stegomyia is a large subgenus of the mosquito genus Aedes with 131 species classified in six species groups, two groups of which are further divided into subgroups.
The Nematocera are a suborder of elongated flies with thin, segmented antennae and mostly aquatic larvae. This group is paraphyletic and contains all flies but species from suborder Brachycera, which includes more commonly known species such as the housefly or the common fruit fly. The equivalent clade to Nematocera is the whole Diptera, with Brachycera as a subclade. Families in Nematocera include mosquitoes, crane flies, gnats, black flies, and multiple families commonly known as midges. The Nematocera typically have fairly long, fine, finely-jointed antennae. In many species, such as most mosquitoes, the female antennae are more or less threadlike, but the males have spectacularly plumose antennae.
Frederick Vincent Theobald FES was an English entomologist and "distinguished authority on mosquitoes". During his career, he was responsible for the economic zoology section of the Natural History Museum, London, vice-principal of the South-Eastern Agricultural College at Wye, Kent, Professor of Agricultural Zoology at London University, and advisory entomologist to the Board of Agriculture for the South-Eastern district of England. He wrote a five volume monograph and sixty scientific papers on mosquitoes. He was recognised for his work in entomology, tropical medicine, and sanitation; awards for his work include the Imperial Ottoman Order of Osmanieh, the Mary Kingsley Medal, and the Victoria Medal of Honour, as well as honorary fellowships of learned societies.
Ochlerotatus is a genus of mosquito. Until 2000, it was ranked as a subgenus of Aedes, but after Reinert's work, the clade was upgraded to the level of a genus. This change has resulted in the renaming of many subgenus species, and many aedini-related taxa are undergoing taxonomic revisions. Some authors are still using traditional taxonomic names in their publications.
Haemagogus is a genus of mosquitoes in the dipteran family Culicidae. They mainly occur in Central America and northern South America, although some species inhabit forested areas of Brazil, and range as far as northern Argentina. In the Rio Grande Do Sul area of Brazil, one species, H. leucocelaenus, has been found carrying yellow fever virus. Several species have a distinct metallic sheen.
Aedes pembaensis is a mosquito.
Aedes africanus is a species of mosquito that is found on the continent of Africa with the exclusion of Madagascar. Aedes aegypti and Aedes africanus are the two main yellow fever vector species in Zambia. Aedes africanus is mainly found in tropical forests not near wetlands.
Uranotaenia is a subgenus of the mosquito genus Uranotaenia with 121 species:
Coquillettidia is a mosquito genus erected by entomologist Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. in 1904 based primarily on unique features of its "peculiar" male genitalia. The specific epithet honors Dyar's colleague Daniel William Coquillett.
The Afrotropical mosquito genus Eretmapodites contains species that exhibit facultative cannibalism in their larval developmental stages. The species was first described in 1901 by Frederick Vincent Theobald. The type species is Eretmapodites quinquevittatus Theobald
Sabethes or canopy mosquitos are primarily an arboreal genus, breeding in plant cavities. The type species is Sabethes locuples, first described by Jean-Baptiste Robineau-Desvoidy in 1827.
Chagasia is one of the three mosquito genera in the subfamily Anophelinae. The other two genera are Anopheles Meigen and Bironella Theobald. The subfamily consists of five species in the Neotropical region. These include C. ablusa Harbach, C. bathana Dyar, C. bonneae Root, C. fajardi Lutz and C. rozeboomi Causey, Deane & Deane.
Mansonia (Mansonioides) annulifera is a species of zoophilic mosquito belonging to the genus Mansonia.
Wyeomyia is a genus of mosquitoes first described in 1901 by Frederick Vincent Theobald. The genus's 140 species can be difficult to characterize because of their diversity and the need for additional taxonomic work to further delineate them. Adults resemble genus Limatus and Sabethes mosquitoes more closely than other genera in the New World tribe Sabethini, but differ by their scutal scales ranging in color from a relatively dull bronzy with a slight metallic sheen in most species, to a metallic gold. There are other distinguishing characters as well.
Deinocerites is a genus of mosquitoes in the family Culicidae. There are about 18 described species in Deinocerites.
