The mosquitoes
are a family of small, midge-like flies: the Culicidae.
Although a few species are harmless or even useful to humanity, most are a
nuisance because they consume blood from living vertebrates,
including humans.
The females of many species of mosquitoes are blood eating
pests. In feeding on blood, some of them transmit extremely harmful human and livestock
diseases, such as malaria.
Some authorities argue accordingly that mosquitoes are the most dangerous
animals on Earth.
Like all
flies, mosquitoes go through four stages in their life cycle: egg,
larva,
pupa, and adult or imago. In most species,
adult females lay their eggs in stagnant water; some lay eggs near the water's
edge; others attach their eggs to aquatic plants. Each species selects the
situation of the water into which it lays its eggs and does so according to its
own ecological adaptations. Some are generalists and are not very fussy. Some
breed in lakes, some in temporary puddles. Some breed in marshes, some in
salt-marshes. Among those that breed in salt water, some are equally at home in
fresh and salt water up to about one third the concentration of seawater,
whereas others must acclimatise themselves to the saltiness.Such differences
are important because certain ecological preferences keep mosquitoes away from
most humans, whereas other preferences bring them right into houses at night.
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