Mosquito

The mosquito is a small flying insect found almost everywhere on Earth. There are more than 3,500 different species of mosquitoes. They live on every continent except Antarctica. Adults are usually less than half an inch long and weigh only a few milligrams. Despite their tiny size, they are considered the deadliest animals in the world.

A mosquito has six legs, two wings, and a long, thin mouthpart called a proboscis. The proboscis works like a narrow straw. Only female mosquitoes bite. They need the protein and iron in blood to make their eggs. Male mosquitoes do not bite at all. They drink nectar from flowers, just like bees.

When a female lands on skin, she pokes her proboscis in and sips blood. She also spits a little saliva into the wound. Her saliva keeps the blood from clotting so she can drink faster. That saliva is what makes the bite itch. Your body sees the saliva as a foreign substance and sends chemicals to fight it, which causes the swelling and the itch.

Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water. A puddle, a pond, a clogged gutter, or even a bottle cap full of rainwater is enough. The eggs hatch into wiggly larvae called wrigglers. The wrigglers swim near the surface and eat tiny bits of food in the water. After a few days, they change into pupae, and then into flying adults. The whole process can take less than two weeks in warm weather.

Mosquitoes are more than just annoying. They carry germs from one person to another when they bite. Malaria, yellow fever, dengue, and the Zika virus all spread this way. Malaria alone kills over 600,000 people every year, most of them young children in Africa. Scientists have worked for decades on vaccines and new ways to fight these diseases. A malaria vaccine for children was approved in 2021.

Even so, mosquitoes are part of the food web. Fish eat the larvae. Birds, bats, frogs, and dragonflies eat the adults. In some wetlands, removing mosquitoes would leave other animals hungry. Scientists disagree about what would happen if every mosquito disappeared. Some think most ecosystems would quickly recover. Others think certain species, like some Arctic birds, would suffer.

Mosquitoes have been around for more than 100 million years. They were biting dinosaurs long before there were any humans to swat them. The next time one buzzes near your ear, remember that you are listening to a very old song.