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MOSQUITOES AND THEIR
CURIOSITIES.
The
culicidae (Latin Culicidae) are mosquitoes,
insects belonging to the order diptera; their genera include Anopheles,
Culex, Psorophora, Ochlerotatus, Aedes, Stethomyia, Sabethes, Wyeomyia,
Culiseta, and Haemagoggus. In total, 35 genera exist with more than
2,700 recognized species.
They
are flying insects and have slender bodies and long legs; their size
varies from species to species, but rarely is greater than 15 mm.
In the majority of the female culicidae, the mouth parts form a long
proboscis for piercing the skin of mammals (or in some cases, birds,
reptiles or amphibians) to suck their blood. The females require protein
in order to compensate for their eggs’ formation and unlike the males’
normal diet, which consists of nectar, sap and fruit juices that are
generally poor in proteins, they must drink blood at least once in their
season to satisfy their needs. The male's mouth parts differ from those of
the females as they are not suitable for sucking blood. Exceptionally, the
females of a genus of mosquitoes, Toxorhynchites, do not drink blood.
Their larvae are predators of other mosquito larvae.
As in
other holometabolic insects (with full metamorphosis), the development
goes through four distinct phases: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The rate of
bodily growth depends upon the species and the temperature. For example,
Culex Tarsalis may complete is life cycle in 14 days at 20º C and in only
ten days at 25º C.
Some species have life cycles of hardly four days and others, at the
opposite extreme, of up to a month.
DISEASES THAT CAN BE TRANSMITTED BY MOSQUITOES.
Like other hematophagous
insects, the
culicidae are vectors for infectious diseases :
- The
Yellow Fever Mosquito (Stegomyia aegypti) is a
mosquito that can be host for Dengue and
Yellow Fever, as well as other diseases. Previously classified as
a sub-genus of Aedes (which belongs to the closely related Aedes
albopictus, the main vector for Dengue). In 2005, molecular
studies led to Stegomyia being reclassified as a genus, changing the
name of the mosquito (which had been denominated Aedes aegypti until
then).
- In areas
where the Tiger mosquito
(Aedes albopictus)
is endemic, it is a vector for the transmission of
diseases such as Dengue in Central and South America and parts of the
Pacific, Yellow Fever and although less frequently that the Stegomyia
aegypti, it can be a vector for the transmission of the West Nile Virus.
North American studies have witnessed the presence of the virus in the
insect, of which, at least two are causes of humans diseases such as
Eastern equine encephalitis.
- The
vector for human malaria is the female of the Anopheles mosquitoes.
This disease is the primary cause of debilitating diseases, with more
than 200 million cases each year worldwide.
-
Certain stocks of Culex pipiens, the most common mosquito in Europe, are
vectors of a disease currently emerging in North America, West
Nile Fever, though it has long been present in the Old World. The repository
of the virus, as in many other cases, is found in birds and there are
strains of mosquito that bite birds but not mammals and vice versa.
The hybrid forms that are spread over North America are less specific
and this contributes to the faster expansion of the disease.
Source:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.
If you wish to read our other articles about fly,
mosquito and wasp killers and curiosities about these flying
insects,
please click
below.
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