Facts About Mosquito

Regarded as one of the peskiest pests around the world, mosquitoes are blood-sucking insects that are prevalent in many parts of the world in large numbers. A mosquito is a small, annoying insect that leaves itchy and irritating bites all over your arms and legs. It resembles crane flies and chironomid flies, with which it is often confused by the observers. Mosquitoes are responsible for killing more than one million people per year, through various mosquito-borne diseases. Studies have revealed that mosquitoes are more active during a full moon than the other parts of the lunar cycle. Most mosquitoes are found in tropical and subtropical regions, but some have successfully adapted to cooler regions as well. Mosquitoes living in temperate zones hibernate during the winters. Did you know that mosquitoes are rated as one of the deadliest animals on earth? If you didn’t know that, then you might not know a lot of fun facts about these insects. Read on to know more interesting facts and amazing information about mosquitoes.

Fast Facts

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Diptera

Suborder: Nematocera

Infraorder: Culicomorpha

Superfamily: Culicoidea

Family: Culicidae

Group Name: Swarm

Length: 0.3-2 cm

Weight: 2.5 mg

Lifespan: 2 weeks–6 months

Diet: Carnivore

Habitat: Adaptable to climates ranging from the arctic to the equator

Gestation Period: 4-7 days

Number of Offspring: 200 eggs

Interesting & Amazing Information On Mosquitoes

There are around 3,500 different species of mosquitoes spread across the world, with over 170 species from North America.
A mosquito’s wings beat 500 times a second.
Mosquitoes have poor eyesight, but it zooms well, like a heat-seeking missile, when nearing a target.
Despite consuming warm blood, mosquitoes are cold-blooded insects.
Anopheles is the only species of mosquitoes known to carry malaria, apart from transmitting filariasis (also called elephantiasis) and encephalitis.
Culex mosquitoes carry and spread encephalitis, filariasis, and the West Nile virus.
Did you know? The average mosquito weighs 2.5 milligrams and when they drink blood, they consume more than 5 milligrams—twice their body weight in blood.
Aedes mosquitoes spread yellow fever, dengue, and encephalitis.
Mosquitoes breed in standing water areas, like rain gutters, tree holes, old buckets and tires with stagnant water.
Most of the mosquitoes do not like to travel and prefer to remain within 1 mile radius of their breeding site.
Mosquitoes locate bloodhosts by the smell of their scent, sight and the carbon dioxide that hosts exhale. They smell their prey from a distance of 100 feet (30 meters).
Mosquitoes require contaminated water/puddles to breed. However, there are a few marsh mosquitoes, which live and breed only in marshy areas.
Just like humans, mosquitoes too have food preferences. They do not always bite humans and prefer birds, horses, frogs and turtles too.
It is believed that they prefer biting children over adults and blondes over brunettes.
A mosquito’s wings beats 400-600 times per second.
Mosquitoes are more attracted towards dark colors, than light ones. Hence, they are more likely to bite a victim wearing darker colors.
A mosquito undergoes four stages during its entire life cycle, namely, egg, larva, pupa and adult or imago.
A mosquito pair synchronizes their wing beats to perform a love duet
The average life span of a female mosquito is 3 to 100 days while that of a male mosquito is 10 to 20 days.
A female mosquito is known to suck about 5-millionths of a liter of blood per serving.
It can lay about 1,000 to 3,000 eggs during its lifespan causing the birth of thousands of mosquitoes every day.
Only female mosquitoes bite to use the proteins from the blood meal to produce eggs.
Male mosquitoes feed on flower nectars, juices and decaying matter.
Mosquito eggs can survive for more than five years.
Right now, there are more deaths caused by mosquitoes than any other animal or insect on the planet.
Mosquitoes can detect carbon dioxide from over 70 feet away.
There are certain mosquitoes that don’t bite humans or feed on decaying matter at all. Some feed on the blood of birds specifically and fall in the group of ‘culiseta melaura’.

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