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Cool Weather Mosquito

Culiseta incidens

Description:

Mosquito? Long proboscis and brown wings with faint pattern. This one was about 1 cm from head to wing tip. What is the white thing in the abdomen shown in the second image? A worm? The male can be seen at: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/213...

Habitat:

Backyard screen door mid-day.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Mosquito, female
Culiseta incidens Species Culiseta incidens - BugGuide.Net


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7 Comments

Christine Y.
Christine Y. 10 years ago

You're welcome Cindy...Great shots :)

Hi Christine, thank you for the wonderful information!

Christine Y.
Christine Y. 10 years ago

I believe that the white "worm-like" thing in the second picture is actually malpighian tubules, which are part of the excretory and osmoregulatory system. Parasites would be much smaller and not visible in this way. For example, dirofilaria parasites, which cause heartworm and are vectored by mosquitoes, are micro in size and have to be small enough to pass through the salivary glands.

Awesome. Thank you picklepickleyum, medusasnakes123 and ForestDragon!

ForestDragon
ForestDragon 10 years ago

Cindy, this is certainly a mosquito. Mosquitos can carry blood parasites. It's possible that we are seeing one.

medusasnakes123
medusasnakes123 10 years ago

I agree with ForestDragon and picklepickleyum, it is a female mosquito.

picklepickleyum
picklepickleyum 10 years ago

Yes, that is really a female mosquito. :)

San Diego, California, USA

Spotted on Feb 11, 2014
Submitted on Feb 12, 2014

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