Mosquito

Also known as mosquitoes, mosquito family, Culicidae

Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a family of small flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word mosquito (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito) 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 many species have adapted to also drink blood. The group diversified during the Cretaceous period. Evolutionary biologists view mosquitoes as micropredators, small animals that parasitise larger ones by

OverviewAI-generated

Culicidae is a family within the taxon Culicidae, classified as a family under the parent taxon Culicoidea and the subclass Animalia. The taxon is an instance of a taxon and is also recognized in the order Diptera, class Insecta, and phylum Arthropoda. Common names for this group include mosquitoes, steekmuggen, moustiques, and mosquitos. The family is described in sources such as the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Gujin Tushu Jicheng, and the Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition.

The habitat of Culicidae includes marine, brackish, and freshwater environments. The status of the family is accepted. The topic has a start time of about 99 million years ago. It is referenced by 2,256 other encyclopedia articles and has a PubMed count of 78954 for the query "Mosquito." The Unicode character 🦟 represents the subject.

Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, WoRMS, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Species

mosquitos

Family

PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderDiptera
FamilyCulicidae

Habitatmarine, brackish, freshwater

蚊科（学名：Culicidae）是昆蟲綱雙翅目之下的一個科。該科生物通常被稱為蚊或蚊子，是一種具有刺吸式口器的纖小飛蟲。绝大多数蚊子中，雄蚊以植物汁液为食，雌蚊则外寄生于人体表面，使用刺吸式口器刺穿宿主的皮肤以吸取血液。其宿主成千上万，主要为脊椎动物,如哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物、两栖动物、鱼类等。有些种类的蚊子还会寄生于节肢动物。吸食血液对宿主一般不会有太大影响，但在吸食过程中，蚊子的唾液会使宿主出现皮疹等症状。蚊子是许多种疾病的传播媒介，蚊子会以吸食血液的方式，将疾病从一个宿主体内传播到另一个宿主体内，登革熱、瘧疾、黃熱病、寨卡病毒、絲蟲病（英语：Filariasis）、日本腦炎、西尼罗河病毒、基孔肯雅热等虫媒病毒（英语：arbovirus）可以通过这种方式快速传播，因此，蚊子被蚊蟲控制協會（英文：Mosquito Control Association）評為世界上最危險的動物之一。目前除南極洲外，各大洲皆有蚊子的廣泛分布。

via

Research

78,954 papers

Arbovirus lifecycle in mosquito: acquisition, propagation and transmission.ReviewExpert reviews in molecular medicine · 2019Wu P, Yu X, Wang P et al.DOI: 10.1017/erm.2018.6
When Is a Plasmodium-Infected Mosquito an Infectious Mosquito?ReviewTrends in parasitology · 2020Graumans W, Jacobs E, Bousema T et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2020.05.011
Mosquito antiviral defense mechanisms: a delicate balance between innate immunity and persistent viral infection.ReviewParasites & vectors · 2019Lee WS, Webster JA, Madzokere ET et al.DOI: 10.1186/s13071-019-3433-8
Mosquito immune defenses against Plasmodium infection.ReviewDevelopmental and comparative immunology · 2010Cirimotich CM, Dong Y, Garver LS et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.dci.2009.12.005
Mosquito-borne pathogens … Now Rickettsias?Revista Argentina de microbiologia · 2025Goenaga S, Boaglio ER, Martinez LV et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.ram.2025.03.002
Dissecting vectorial capacity for mosquito-borne viruses.ReviewCurrent opinion in virology · 2015Kramer LD, Ciota ATDOI: 10.1016/j.coviro.2015.10.003
Surfactants alter mosquito's flight and physical condition.Scientific reports · 2023Kato-Namba A, Iida T, Ohta K et al.DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29455-6
The chemosensory world of mosquitoes: olfactory receptors and their role in blocking mosquito-borne disease transmission.ReviewParasites & vectors · 2025Xiong S, Liang J, Gao S et al.DOI: 10.1186/s13071-025-06954-1

via PubMed

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

37 sections

Contents

Description and life cycle
Adult
Eggs
Larva
Pupa
Feeding by adults
Diet
Host animals
Finding hosts
Mouthparts
Saliva
Egg development and blood digestion
Distribution
Cosmopolitan
Effect of climate change
Ecology
Predators and parasites
Pollination
Parasitism
Evolution
Fossil record
Taxonomy
Phylogeny
External
Internal
Interactions with humans
Vectors of disease
Control
Repellents
Bites
In human culture
Greek mythology
Origin myths
Modern era
References
Further reading
External links

The mosquito lifecycle consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Eggs are laid on the water surface; they hatch into motile larvae that feed on aquatic algae and organic material. These larvae are important food sources for many freshwater animals, such as dragonfly nymphs, many fish, and some birds. Adult females of many species have mouthparts adapted to pierce the skin of a host and feed on blood of a wide range of vertebrate hosts, and some invertebrates, primarily other arthropods. Some species only produce eggs after a blood meal.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mosquito” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.