A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Armigeres sp.
Mosquitoes ("little flies" in Spanish) are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae (Meigen, 1818) (from the Latin culex, genitive culicis meaning "midge" or "gnat"). Superficially, mosquitoes resemble crane flies (family Tipulidae) and chironomid flies (family Chironomidae); as a result, casual observers seldom realize the important differences between the members of the respective families. Wikipedia. Genus Armigeres Theobald, 1901, of subfamily Culicinae, tribe Aedini. Larvae are found in small collections of water, particularly those containing foul water or water with a high organic content. The females of a number of Armigeres species readily attack and viciously bite humans.
Backyard, spotted on weeds.
Related spotting from India: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/789.... Reference: http://www.mosquitocatalog.org/files/pdf... http://www.mosquitocatalog.org/taxon_des... http://www.mosquitocatalog.org/files/pdf...
Spotted on Dec 3, 2012
Submitted on Dec 3, 2012
5 Comments
Wow! Thanks Christine!
I had a contact at WRBU/Smithsonian look at these photos, and he said that it is impossible to get an accurate ID from these pictures without actual samples and possible dissections because of the closeness of these species. But, his best guess is that they are in the Armigeres genus. So, at least you have a genus level!
Thanks Christine for looking into this. Appreciate your assistance to ID this.
Regards!!
Hi, thanks for linking me to your pics! They helped me fix a misidentification! These are not Anopheles mosquitoes. Your pictures show a female (above) with two males (below). I can't see if the abdomens are pointed, so am unsure of a genus, but I will do some checking to see if I can get it to the genus level for you. Also, these are very similar to the ones here: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/656...
Hi Christine Y. Are these Anopheles sp. as well? Thanks!