About mosquitoes

With their narrow wings and long thin legs, mosquitoes belong to the group of two-winged flies (GLOBE Observer). There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes that vary in their food and habitat preferences, behavior patterns and host species they visit. All mosquito species require aquatic habitats with preferably stagnant water. The life cycle diagram shows that mosquitoes go through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and winged adult. Once the female mosquito has secured enough protein via a blood meal, she deposits eggs on the water surface. The eggs hatch into larvae that feed and grow larger. The non-feeding pupa stage then develops into adults. Depending on the species, mosquitoes can overwinter as eggs, larvae or adults. You might have observed “fat, drunk” mosquitoes at the beginning of summer, which overwinter as adults and are the first to be active during the growing season. Other mosquito species overwinter as eggs and need to undergo several life-cycle stages before emerging as adults later in the season. If you would like to learn how to identify the larvae and adults, please take a look at this GLOBE mosquito identification (pdf).

There are 4 genera of mosquitoes in Alaska:

• Aedes - the most common

• Anopheles - rare

• Culex - rare

• Culiseta - the second most common