The tiny, cigar-shaped, dark brown eggs adhere to each other through adhesion forces, not any kind of cement, and are easily separated. Suitable habitats for egg-laying are small bodies of standing fresh water: puddles, pools, ditches, tin cans, buckets, bottles, and water storage tanks (tree boles are suitable for only a few species). The metamorphosis is typical of holometabolism in an insect: the female lays eggs in rafts of as many as 300 on the water's surface. The developmental cycle of most species takes about two weeks in warm weather. Anopheline larvae tend to float horizontal at the surface of the water when not in motion, whereas culicine larvae float with head low and only the siphon at the tail held at the surface. Anopheline mosquitoes tend to sit with their heads low and their rear ends raised high, especially when feeding, while culicine females keep their bodies horizontal. Anopheline mosquitoes tend to have dappled or spotted wings, while culicine wings tend to be clear. Especially in the female, palps as long as the proboscis are characteristic of anopheline mosquitoes. Given a specimen in good condition, one of the first things to notice is the length of the maxillary palps. In the field, informal identification is more often important, and the first question as a rule is whether the mosquito is anopheline or culicine. įormal identification is important in mosquito control, but it is demanding and requires careful measurements of bodily proportions and noting the presence or absence of various bristles or other bodily features. As in all Diptera capable of flight, the second pair of wings is reduced and modified into tiny, inconspicuous halteres. The adult morphology is typical of flies in the suborder Nematocera with the head, thorax, and abdomen clearly defined and the two forewings held horizontally over the abdomen when at rest. Description ĭepending on the species, the adult Culex mosquito may measure from 4–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in). In naming this genus, Carl Linnaeus appropriated the nonspecific Latin term for a midge or gnat: culex. They occur worldwide except for the extreme northern parts of the temperate zone, and are the most common form of mosquito encountered in some major U.S. Louis encephalitis, but also filariasis and avian malaria. The diseases they vector include arbovirus infections such as West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis, or St. Culex is a genus of mosquitoes, several species of which serve as vectors of one or more important diseases of birds, humans, and other animals.
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