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iNat·52134FamilyInsecta237,653 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Arthropods
  3. ›Hexapods
  4. ›Insects
  5. ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
  6. ›Flies
  7. ›Nematoceran Flies
  8. ›Mosquitoes and Midges
  9. ›Culicoidea
Mosquitoes
Plate 1 of 8. (c) JJ Harrison, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · via iNaturalist

Mosquitoes

Culicidae

Mosquitoes are small, midge-like flies that constitute the family Culicidae. Females of most species are ectoparasites, whose tube-like mouthparts (called a proboscis) pierce the hosts' skin to consume blood. The word "mosquito" (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito) is Spanish for "little fly". Thousands of species feed on the blood of various kinds of hosts, mainly vertebrates, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even some kinds of fish. Some mosquitoes also attack invertebrates, mainly other arthropods....

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2 branches of this family, most-observed first

Culicine Mosquitoes

subfamilyCulicinae

Anopheline Mosquitoes

subfamilyAnophelinae

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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In the stacks

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Every page naming Culicidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 52134.