Chapter 5 - Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes

Fun facts about Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes fly an estimated 1 to 1.5 miles per hour.

Salt marsh mosquitoes can migrate up to 40 miles for a meal.

Smelly feet are attractive to certain species of mosquitoes

Dark clothing has been shown to attract some species of mosquitoes more than lighter colored clothing.

Movement increased mosquito biting up to 50% in some research tests.

A full moon increased mosquito activity 500% in one study

The average mosquito weighs about 2.5 milligrams.

The average mosquito takes in about 5-millionths of a liter of blood during feeding

Mosquitoes are a family of small, midge-like flies. Although a few species are harmless or even useful to humanity Though the loss of blood is seldom of any importance to the victim, the saliva of the mosquito often causes an irritating rash that is a serious nuisance. Much more serious though, are the roles of many species of mosquitoes as vectors of diseases. In passing from host to host, some transmit extremely harmful infections such as malaria, yellow fever, west nile virus and filariasis.
Mosquitoes Life Cycle

• Mosquitoes have 4 stage in its life cycle just like flies.
• A mosquitoes spend their first 10 days in water, water is need for the eggs to hatch into larvae

Eggs

• Anopheles - female just fly over the water, bobbing up and down to the water surface and dropping eggs or less singly, the bobbing behavior occurs and it is sometime called 'dapping. are roughly cigar-shaped and have float down their sides, the females can lay 100-200 eggs during the phase of life-cycles, even with high egg and inter generational mortality, over a period a several weeks, a single successful breeding pair can create a population of thousand.
• Mansonia - Lay their eggs in arrays, attached usually to the under-surface of waterlily pads.
• Coquillettidia - lay eggs similarly, but not attached to the plant, the eggs form layers called ''raft'' that float on the water.
• Culex - In species that lay their eggs in rafts,settles carefully on still water with hind legs crossed, and lays eggs one by one, then twitches to arrange them into head-down array that sticks together to form the raft

Larvae

• Has a well-developed head with mouth brushes used foe feeding a large thorax with no legs and segmented abdomen.
• Breath through spiracles located on their eighth abdominal segments or siphon, so must come to the surface frequently.
• Spend most of their time feeding on algae, bacteria, and other microbes in the surface micro layer
• They dive below the surface only when disturbed. 

Pupa

• Is comma-shaped.
• The head and thorax are merged into cephalothorax, with abdomen curving around underneath.
• Can swim actively by flipping it's abdomen, and it is commonly called''tumbler'' because of it's swimming action.
• They do through a pair of respiration trumpets on their cephalothoraces.
• Do not feed, so it will be not actives just like larvae
• After a few days, depending on the temperature and others circumstances, the pupa rises to the water surface.
• If disturbed, they will flipping.

Adult Mosquitoes

• It strongly influenced by ambient temperature, some species can develop from egg to adult in a few as five days, but a 
• More typical period of development in tropical conditions would be 40 days or more for most species.
• The variation of the body size in adult mosquitoes depends on the density of the larvae population and food supply within the breeding water.
• Usually in this stage mate a within a few days after emerging from the pupa stage, the male form large swarms, usually around dusk, and the female fly into the the swarms to mate.
• Male typically live around 5-7 days, feeding on nectar or sugar, after obtaining the full blood meal, the female will rest a few days while the blood is digested and eggs are developed, and resumes host-seeking, depends on temperature but usually takes two until three days in tropical condition.
• The cycle repeats itself until the female dies. While females can live stronger than a month in capacity, most do not live longer than one to two weeks in nature, depends on temperature, humidity and their ability to successfully obtain a blood meal while avoiding host defences and predators.
• The length of the adult is rarely greater than 116 mm and weight up to 2.5 milligrams.
• All mosquitoes have slender bodies with three segment, ahead, thorax and abdomen.
• The head is specialized for receiving sensory information, has an elongated, forward-projecting and two sensory palps.The maxillary papls of the males are longer than proboscises, where the females are shorter, In typical bloodsucking species, female has an elongated proboscis. 
• It has a eyes and a pair of long, many antennae, the antenna are important for detecting host odors of breeding sites where females lay eggs, in male antennae are noticeably bushier and contain auditory receptors detect the characteristic whine of the female.
• The compound eyes are distinctly separated from one another, the larvae only posseses a pit- eye ocellus, the compound eyes of adults develop in a semicircular rows at the head. during the first phase of grows, this leads to individual ommatidia being square, but later, they will become hexagonal and will only become visible when carapace of the stage with square eyes is molted.
• Thorax is specialized for locomotion, it has three pairs of legs and a pair of wings. The anopheles mosquitoes can fly for up to four hours continuously at 1 to 2 km travelling up to 12 km in a night , males beat their wings between 450- 600  times per seconds.
• The abdomen is specialized for food digestion and egg development, it can hold three times its own weight in blood, This segment expands considerably when a female takes a blood meal, the blood digested over time, serving a source of protein for production of eggs.

Can cause

• West Nile Fever
• Dengue Fever
• Malaria
• Japanese Encephalitis
• Lympathic Filiarisis
• Chikungunya

How to Prevent Mosquitoes

• Stay away from heavily population residential areas, if possible.
• Use mosquito repellents, even indoors.
• When outdoor, wear a long sleeved shirts and long pants tucked into socks.
• Make sure window and door screen are secure and free of holes, If sleeping areas are not screened or air conditioned, use mosquito nets.
• Use repellent.
• Use bacteria to kill larvae (Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis)
• Avoid dark clothing.