To determine the sex of a mosquito, look at the antenna. If the antenna are "plumose" (hairy), the mosquito is male. If the antenna are "pilose" (not very hairy), the mosquito is female (see diagram above)2. To determine the genera of medically important mosquitoes, look at the palps (sensory organs just lateral to the proboscis, the stick-like organ that punctures the skin for blood meal). If it is a female mosquito with long palps, the mosquito is Anopheles. Anopheles mosquitoes rest and bite with their bottoms up (approximately 45 degree angle to the skin). If you see a mosquito biting you with it's bottom parallel to the skin, it is not likely a anopheles, and you can rest assured that you won't get malaria from that bite (although you could get Yellow Fever, Dengue, Fillariasis, West Nile virus, or another mosquito-borne arthropod virus. Adult females lay their eggs in standing water, which can be a salt-marsh, a lake, a puddle, a natural reservoir on a plant, or an artificial water container such as a plastic bucket. The first three stages are aquatic and last 5–14 days, depending on the species and the ambient temperature; eggs hatch to become larvae, then pupae. The adult mosquito emerges from the pupa as it floats at the water surface. Adults live for 4–8 weeks. The larvae spend most of their time feeding on algae, bacteria, and other micro-organisms in the surface microlayer. They dive below the surface only when disturbed. Larvae swim either through propulsion with the mouth brushes, or by jerky movements of the entire body, giving them the common name of "wigglers" or "wrigglers". A similar cycle of activity occurs in the posterior midgut and posterior midgut lumen, whereas aminopeptidase in the posterior midgut epithelium decreases in activity during digestion. Aminopeptidase in the anterior midgut is maintained at a constant low level, showing no significant variation with time after feeding. alpha-glucosidase is active in anterior and posterior midguts before and at all times after feeding. In whole midgut homogenates, alpha-glucosidase activity increases slowly up to 18 hours after the blood meal, then rises rapidly to a maximum at 30 hours after the blood meal, whereas the subsequent decline in activity is less predictable. All posterior midgut activity is restricted to the posterior midgut lumen. Depending upon the time after feeding, greater than 25% of the total midgut activity of alpha-glucosidase is located in the anterior midgut.
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mosquito eggs