Family: Culicidae, Mosquitoes view all from this family

Description 1/8-1/4" (4-6 mm). Golden-brown; male unmarked, female's abdomen with middorsal silvery-white stripe and silvery-white or golden-yellow bands. Female's proboscis and tarsi have white and black bands. Thorax feathery. Male's antennae feathery, female's threadlike. Wings smoky, female's spotted.

Warning Female mosquitoes suck the blood of mammals, including humans, leaving an itchy wound. Mosquitoes are capable of passing diseases from one host organism to the next, including malaria, West Nile virus, yellow fever, and various types of encephalitis.

Food Male feeds on plant juices; female sucks blood from wild and domestic animals and humans. Larva feeds on algae and single-celled animals.

Life Cycle Eggs are laid singly on vegetation or other surface at waterline. Larvae hatch and pupate in stagnant water.

Habitat Near brackish and salt water; larvae also in swimming pools.

Range New Brunswick to Florida, west to Texas, north to Nebraska.

Discussion The Black Saltmarsh Mosquito (A. taeniorhynchus), 1/8" (4 mm), is black with broad white bands, no middorsal stripe, and a different pattern of white on the proboscis and tarsi. It is found in Massachusetts, south along the Atlantic Coast, and west along the Gulf of Mexico into southern California.