Amal Almuhanna
2012
• Mosquitoes are small insects with piercingsucking mouthparts.
• Scaly wings.
• Female mosquitoes suck blood
• The males cannot suck blood but both sexes
feed on nectar of various plants.
• In some species of mosquito, the females feed
on humans, and are therefore vectors for a
number of infectious diseases affecting
millions of people per year.
Animalia
: Arthropod
: Insecta
: Diptera
: Culicidae
: Anopheles,
Aedes, Culex
Body is small, fragile, 3-6mm long.
A slightly shorter spread of its narrow
wings.
Its body, like that of other insects,
consists of head, thorax, and abdomen.
The round head has a long proboscis
(tubular mouth part) and antennae.
 In
the male, long hairs on the antennae
give these appendages a feathery
appearance.
 Hairs on the antennae of the female
are shorter.
 The mosquito's slender legs are
attached to the triangular thorax.
 The abdomen is long and narrow
1. Antenna: plumose in
male, pilose in female
2. Mouthparts: piercing
and sucking type.
3. Proboscis and 6
needles.
4. palp
5. Feeding
6. External genitalia
Mosquitoes have mouthparts which are
adapted for piercing the skin of plants and
animals.
They typically feed on nectar and plant juices.
Piercing
and
sucking
mouth-parts is that suited
for piercing the tissues of
plants and animals and
sucking up their sap or
blood.
The labium forms a long,
cylindrical, 3-segmented
The maxillae, each has 2 grooves
on its inner surface. When they fit
together, two tubes are formed
between them.
The labrum is small and situated
over the base of the proboscis.
The labium bears
sensory labella.
2-terminal
The maxillary palps are well
developed ( in male 5-segmened
and in female 3-segmented).
Single pair of
membranous wings.
The other (hind
pair) is modified
into small knobbed
sensory structures
known as halteres.
 Mosquitoes are aquatic in their early stages.
 Mosquitoes go through four stages in their life cycle:
egg, larva, pupa, and adult or imago.
 The first three stages are aquatic.
 Adult females lay their eggs in water.
 5–14 days, depending on the species and the
ambient temperature; eggs hatch to become larvae,
then pupae.
 The adult mosquito emerges from the pupa as it
floats at the water surface.
 Flower pollination.
 In some species of
mosquito, the females
feed on humans, and are
therefore vectors for a
number of infectious
diseases affecting
millions of people per
year.
Now, we will study three genera with medical
importance:
 Aedes
 Culex
 Anopheles
Aedes
Culex
Anopheles
 Aedes
species are typical
small mosquitoes.
 They usually have black
and white stripe markings
on their body and legs.
 Laid singly.
Initially white eggs turn a
shiny black color a few
minutes after being laid.
 The egg shell has a
mosaic pattern.
 Egg are laid on a damp
substrates just beyond the
water line.
 It can withstand
desiccation (they can be
dry but viable for many
months).
 Larvae hang head down from the surface of the water with their
posterior breathing tube (siphon) extended above the surface for air.
 There is only one pair of sub-ventral tufts of hairs.
 There are three pair of setae on the ventral brush.
Larvae have length siphon.
Aedes larvae hang down from the water surface at an angle.
 The pupa is located
on the surface of the
water where it
breathes through a
pair of air tubes or
trumpets.
 This stage of the
mosquito is commonly
referred to as a
"tumbler" because its
form is larval.
 Under optimal conditions, the egg of an
Aedes mosquito can hatch into a larva in less
than a day.
 The larva then takes about four days to
develop in a pupa, from which an adult
mosquito will emerge after two days.
 Three days after the mosquito has bitten a
person and taken in blood, it will lay eggs, and
the cycle begins again.
The name comes from the Greek
aēdēs meaning "unpleasant" or
"odious",
 So called because of the diseases
this type of mosquito transmits,
including dengue fever and yellow
fever. In Polynesia, the species
Aedes polynesiensis is responsible
for the transmission of human
lymphatic filariasis
 3 famous culex species
1. C. pipiens
2. C. quinquefasciatus
3. C. tarsalis
Culex pipiens
quinquefasciatus
tarsalis
Morphologically has the three
body parts common to insects:
head, thorax, and abdomen.
 As a fly, it has one pair of
wings.
 All types of mosquitoes must
have water to complete their
life cycles.
 Culex mosquitoes prefer small
bodies of still water full of
organic matter, such as tin
scans, bird baths or rain barrel
 Culex lays their eggs on the surface
of fresh or stagnant water.
Mosquitoes prefer water sheltered
from the wind by grass and weeds.
 Culex egg is brown, long and
cylindrical.
 It may lay 300 eggs up-right on the
water surface.
 Culesx eggs are placed together to
form an egg raft.
 They are adhered to each other
due to surface forces.
Culex mosquito laying eggs.
 It has long, narrow siphon.
- There are more than one pair of sub-ventral
tufts of hairs on the siphon, non of them near
its base
A Culex pupa floats on
top of the water for one
to four days while it
transforms into an adult
mosquito.
 The pupal phase is a
non-feeding, resting
stage.
1. Annoyance pest :
A mosquito bite may induce local
dermatitis or even systematic
reaction in sensitive persons.
2. Disease Carrier:
Often a carrier of diseases, such
as Filariasis , encephalitis, yellow
fever, dengue fever, dog
heartworm, West Nile virus, and
many others.
The females, who drink blood, can
carry disease from one animal to
another as they feed

Some species
• Anopheles acanthotorynus
• Anopheles albimanus
• Anopheles albitarsis
The adult females can live up to
a month (or more in captivity)
but most probably do not live
more than 1-2 weeks in nature
 Eggs are laid singly directly on
water and are unique in having
floats on either side.
 Eggs are not resistant to drying
and hatch within 2-3 days,
although hatching may take up to
2-3 weeks in colder climates
Anopheles larvae do not have a siphon and they
lay parallel to the water surface.
 The larva feed on micro-organisms and organic
matter in the water.
 On the fourth molt the larva changes into a
pupa.
 As with the larvae, pupae must come to the
surface frequently to breathe, which they do
through a pair of respiratory trumpets on the
cephalothorax.
 The pupa is comma-shaped.
Pupae do not feed during this stage.
 The pupa is less active than larvae
 Malaria parasites are
transmitted from one person to
another by the female anopheline
mosquito.
 There are about 380 species of
anopheline mosquito, but only 60
or so are able to transmit the
parasite.
Aedes
Culex
Anopheles
• Singly on water surface
• Anopheles
• Singly in a pile, on moist substrates
• Aedes
• Form of a raft, on water surface
• Culex
Anopheles
Culex
Aedes
Anopheles
Aedes
Anopheline
Culex
Anopheles
Culicine
Adult Stage Comparison
Anopheline
Culicine
Comparison of
male and female
Anophelines vs.
Culicines
females
Culicine
Anopheline
males