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Uranotaenia sapphirina
My favorite mosquito! It's tiny and blue!
It's a tiny, mostly dark mosquito with a blunt abdomen. The proboscis widens distally. The scutum and scutellum have iridescent blue scales, and the wings have a long line of iridescent blue scales on the basal two-thirds of the 5th vein.
Attracted to a light at night in a rural area
Spotted on Aug 9, 2018
Submitted on Aug 31, 2018
7 Comments
Thanks so much for SOTD Daniele! I'm honored to have this cute, little mosquito chosen!
And, lol @Mark - of course!
Trust you to have a favourite mosquito Christine. ;-)
Congrats.
Congratulations Christine, this super-interesting mosquito is our Spotting of the Day:
"A mosquito with iridescent blue scales! Uranotaenia sapphirina, our Spotting of the Day, has another claim to fame. For a long time research on mosquito host interactions has focused on species that carry pathogens, such as Aedes, Anopheles or Culex species, the hosts of which are vertebrates. Uranotaenia sapphirina, a North American species, is the first mosquito to have been shown to specialize on annelid hosts (earthworms and leeches). This shows that the breadth of hosts for mosquitoes is larger than previously thought.
For more information: https://buff.ly/2xifoOY "
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Wow, that is so interesting! I had no idea.
It is also highly interesting!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-0...
We will definitely feature it ;-)
Thanks Daniele! This species sure is cute ;)
Only you can make a mosquito likable Christine! Wonderful. And interesting series of mosquito species altogether.