British Insects: the Families of Diptera
British Insects: the Families of Diptera |
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Mosquitoes.
Parasitic (the adult females often blood-suckers), or non-parasitic.
Adult insects. Very small to medium-sized; slender-bodied; stilt-legged. Antennae 13 segmented; ‘simple’. Antennae not aristate (ornately plumed in the males). Ocelli absent. Mouthparts functional (proboscis long); adapted for piercing (females), or non-piercing (males). Mandibles present. Mandibles represented by long, slender, piercing stylets (in the females of blood-sucking species), or not in the form of long, slender, piercing stylets. The maxillary palps 3–5 segmented; porrect. Vibrissae absent. Thorax without a continuous dorsal suture (i.e., without the V-shaped suture of Tipulidae). Wing veins reaching the margin 10, or 11. Wings without a discal cell; without a sub-apical cell; without a closed anal cell. The costa extending around the entire wing. The leading edge veins not noticeably stronger than the rest. Vein 3 not forked. Vein 6 present; reaching the wing margin. Vein 7 present; reaching the wing margin, or falling short of the wing margin. Wings with the lower calypter much reduced or absent; patterned, or unpatterned (mostly?). Parasitic (blood-sucking females), or neither parasitic nor predatory (both sexes imbibing juices of flowers and fruits).
Larvae and pupae. Larvae aquatic (and swimming very actively); saprophagous; eucephalic. Pupa without a puparium.
Classification. Suborder Nematocera; Division Culicomorpha; Superfamily Culicoidea.
British representation: Genera 6; 32 species.
Illustrations: • Aedes, Anopheles, Culex, Culiseta (from Walker). See notes for legend. • Anopheles claviger (Plain Mosquito: B. Ent. 210). • Anopheles claviger (detail: B. Ent. 210). • Anopheles claviger (dissections: B. Ent. 210). • Anopheles claviger (B. Ent. 210, legend+text). • Aedes geniculatus (White-spotted Mosquito: B. Ent. 537).
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Diptera. Version: 9th June 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
