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Answers: How Much Do You Know About Mosquitoes? See if You're an Entomologist or Ought to Be, or Whether You're Likely to Become a Unauthorized Blood Donor |
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1. How long have mosquitoes existed?
c. At least 210 million years
At least since the Jurassic Period. The Jurassic Period began about 210 million years ago and lasted for 70 million years of the Mesozoic Era. Insects that are descendants of today’s mosquitoes fed on dinosaurs.
2. How many different mosquito species are found worldwide?
b. About 2,600
Some 2,600 species are found worldwide. Approximately 50 species are found in California.
3. Which mosquitoes are found on all continents except Antarctica?
a. Culex pipiens complex, a household mosquito.
The Culex pipiens complex is found on every continent except Antarctica. This is the common household mosquito.
4. Why do mosquitoes bite?
c. Primarily, because the females need a blood meal to develop their eggs.
Females need the protein to develop their eggs.
Harvard School of Public Health: "Only female mosquitoes feed on blood. The blood triggers ovarian activity, and after a few days she lays several hundred eggs. A few weeks later, the eggs hatch. Two or three days later, they become full adult mosquitoes."
5. Some male mosquitoes have been known to suck blood, although they have no use for blood. What are these called?
a. Gynandromorphs
The term "gynandromorph" literally means part female (gyn-) and part male (andro-).
6. What of the following is NOT a mosquito-borne disease?
a. Lyme disease
Lyme disease is transmitted by ticks. A spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, a corkscrew-shaped kind of bacterium, causes the disease.
7. When can a newly emerged mosquito first mate?
b. Two days old
Mosquitoes can mate when they’re about two days old.
8. How fast can a Culex female beat her wings?
c. 250 to 500 times per second.
Their wings can beat 250 to 500 times per second. Males are attracted to the buzzing.
9. How long can the average mosquito live?
b. About one month.
About one month, average. Some live longer; some live a few weeks.
c. Charles Laveran French Army physician Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran was first to identify malaria parasites in the blood of an infected person. This occurred on Nov. 6, 1880 in the French Foreign Legion outpost in Constantine, Algeria. Laveran, who won the 1907 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, also worked on isolating other single-celled organisms which cause disease. 11. What physician connected mosquitoes to malaria? 12. Who first described the four distinct stages in its life cycle: egg, larva, pupa and adult? 13. What country was using quinine-based medicine in the 1600s? |
14. How many legs does a mosquito have?
c. Six
A
mosquito has six long, jointed legs.
15. How does a female mosquito identify its victims?
b. Sight, smell and warmth
By sight, smell and warmth. They do so by chemical, visual and heat sensors. Mosquitoes can sense carbon dioxide and lactic acid up to 100 feet away. If you don’t sweat much, you will be less of a target. If you’re wearing clothing that contrasts with the environment, rather than blends in, you’re fair game—especially if you’re moving. Mosquitoes will think you’re alive and full of blood.
Harvard School of Public Health: "Thousands of hairs on the mosquito antennae can sense moisture, lactic acid, carbon dioxide, body heat and movement."
16. The mosquito has four distinct stages: egg, pupae, larvae and adult. What are the larvae called?
c. Wrigglers or wigglers
Larvae are called wrigglers or wigglers and are often found in ponds, puddles or water-filled containers. Pupae are called “tumblers.” See the life cycle.
17. What phylum does the mosquito belong to?
a. Arthropoda
The Phylum is Arthropoda.
Classification:
Kingdom Animalia; Phylum Arthropoda (arthropods); Class Insecta (insects); Order Diptera ("two wings"); Family Culicidae.
18. What important person died of malaria in 323 B. C.?
b. Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great, according to Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe, by Andrew Spielman, Sc.D., and Michael D'Antonio. 2001. Hyperion, New York. Spielman, a senior investigator in tropical diseases at Harvard, is one of the world's foremost authorities on mosquitoes and the infections they transmit. D'Antonio is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
As an aside, Spielman says many French and German-born popes died of malaria in the 11th and 12th centuries.
19. Mosquitoes comprise what percent of a bat’s diet?
c. Less than 1 percent
Less than one percent. Although bats can consume large quantities of insects, less than 1 percent of a bat's diet will consist of mosquitoes, according to the American Mosquito Control Association. Bats mostly feed on larger insects such as beetles. Thus, bats very rarely have any substantial effect on the mosquito population.
20. The larvae of Anopheles gambiae have no: Most species (including Culex and Aedes) of larvae breathe at the water's surface through a siphon tube at its tail end. |
Anopheles larvae lack a respiratory siphon or breathing or air tube. That's why they position themselves so that their body is parallel to the surface of the water, or flat against the surface.
d. Both b and c. b. It’s linked to Freeborn Hall, which was named for a UC Davis entomologist c. It was named for Stanley B. Freeborn, former UC Davis chancellor Stanley Barron Freeborn (1891-1960) was a UC Davis chancellor and entomologist. Freeborn Hall bears his name. Freeborn, who attained world recognition as an authority on malaria. He was born in Hudson, Mass., on Dec. 11, 1891, and died in Davis on July 17, 1960. Freeborn served as provost of UC Davis and then was promoted to chancellor in 1958, as part of the UC President Robert Gordon Sproul's major reorganization of the UC system. The chancellors: |
22. If you were a Uranotaenia mosquito, which host would you prefer for a blood meal?
c. Something out of the toad tunnel at UC Davis
Uranotaenia sapphirina is an amphibian-feeding species.
Says Wikipedia: "Davis' toad tunnel has drawn much attention over the years including a mention on The Daily Show. Because of the building of an overpass, animal lovers worried about toads being killed by cars commuting from South Davis to North Davis, since the toads hopped from one side of a dirt lot (which the overpass replaced) to the reservoir at the other end. After much controversy, a decision was made to build a toad tunnel, which runs beneath the Pole Line Road overpass.
"The tunnel has created problems of its own. The toads originally refused to use the tunnel and so the tunnel was lighted to encourage its use. The toads then died from the heat of the lamps inside the tunnel. The exit to the toad tunnel has been decorated by the postmaster to resemble a toad town."
23. What’s another word for mosquito?
d. All of the above
a. Skeeter
b. Little Fly
c. Mossie or Mozzie
Mosquito means “little fly” in Spanish, dating back to about 1583. Entomologists call them “mossies” for short; in Africa, the general populace calls them "Mozzies.". Another nickname for mosquitos is " skeeters."
24. West Nile Virus was first discovered in
b. Uganda in 1937
West Nile virus was first discovered in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. It spread to New York in 1999 and to California in 2002. Large epidemics, involving hundreds of people, were recorded in Israel in the 1950s; South Africa in 1974; Algeria in 1994;, Romania in 1996; Tunisia in 1997; the United States in 1999; and southern Russia in 1999, according to the Encyclopedia of Arthropod-Transmitted Infections.
25. In California, there’s at least one genus active every month of the year. Which one is active in the winter?
c. Culiseta
Culiseta inornata is often referred to as the “winter mosquito” and seldom breeds in the summer.
ANSWERS:
20 or more correct: You’re an entomologist, or you ought to be
15 to 19 correct: Your friends call you “Skeeter.”
10 to 14 correct: You may become an unauthorized blood donor. Be sure to wear long-sleeved pants and shirts when you’re outdoors.
Under 9: Mosquitoes love you. You think of them as “pets” instead of “pests.”
SOURCES:
- Gregory Lanzaro, director of the UC Davis Mosquito Research Program and of the UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases; and professor of entomology at UC Davis
- Anthony Cornel, director of the UC Mosquito Research Laboratory at Kearney Agricultural Center, Parlier' associate director of the UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases; and associate professor of entomology at UC Davis
- Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe, by Andrew Spielman, Sc.D., and Michael D'Antonio. 2001. Hyperion, New York. Spielman, a senior investigator in tropical diseases at Harvard, is one of the world's foremost authorities on mosquitoes and the infections they transmit. D'Antonio is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
- Encyclopedia of Arthropod-Transmitted Infections, edited by M. W. Service, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
- Harvard School of Public Health, Boston
- American Mosquito Control Association, Mount Laurel, N.J.
- Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California, Sacramento
Back to mosquito "skeeter" quiz
See feature story on 'Mosquito Man' Greg Lanzaro
See slide show on malaria research in Africa
Mosquito Research Program - Department of Entomology - UC Davis - UC Agriculture and Natural Resources
One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616
© 2006, The Regents of the
University of California.
Comments or Questions: Nancy Dullum, Program Assistant
Last updated:
11/06/2006