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Breeding: Opifex Fuscus

Mosquitoes have diverse breeding habits depending on species. Some lay eggs in stagnant water while others attach eggs to aquatic plants. They select breeding sites like lakes, puddles, marshes or saltwater according to their adaptations. Species that breed in artificial containers or near humans are more likely to transmit diseases. Mosquito eggs and methods of laying also vary - some drop eggs singly into water while others attach eggs in rafts to surfaces near water. Larvae pass through four instar stages before pupating, feeding on microbes and diving when disturbed.

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17 views3 pages

Breeding: Opifex Fuscus

Mosquitoes have diverse breeding habits depending on species. Some lay eggs in stagnant water while others attach eggs to aquatic plants. They select breeding sites like lakes, puddles, marshes or saltwater according to their adaptations. Species that breed in artificial containers or near humans are more likely to transmit diseases. Mosquito eggs and methods of laying also vary - some drop eggs singly into water while others attach eggs in rafts to surfaces near water. Larvae pass through four instar stages before pupating, feeding on microbes and diving when disturbed.

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Zyrene Yanez
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Breeding

In most species, adult females lay their eggs in stagnant water: some lay near the water's edge while
others attach their eggs to aquatic plants. Each species selects the situation of the water into which
it lays its eggs and does so according to its own ecological adaptations. Some breed in lakes, some
in temporary puddles. Some breed in marshes, some in salt-marshes. Among those that breed in
salt water (such as Opifex fuscus), some are equally at home in fresh and salt water up to about
one-third the concentration of seawater, whereas others must acclimatize themselves to the salinity.
[27]
 Such differences are important because certain ecological preferences keep mosquitoes away
from most humans, whereas other preferences bring them into houses at night.
Some species of mosquitoes prefer to breed in phytotelmata (natural reservoirs on plants), such as
rainwater accumulated in holes in tree trunks, or in the leaf-axils of bromeliads. Some specialize in
the liquid in pitchers of particular species of pitcher plants, their larvae feeding on decaying insects
that had drowned there or on the associated bacteria; the genus Wyeomyia provides such examples
—the harmless Wyeomyia smithii breeds only in the pitchers of Sarracenia purpurea.[28]
Some of the species of mosquitoes that are adapted to breeding in phytotelmata are dangerous
disease vectors. In nature, they might occupy anything from a hollow tree trunk to a cupped leaf.
Such species typically take readily to breeding in artificial water containers. Such casual puddles are
important breeding places for some of the most serious disease vectors, such as species
of Aedes that transmit dengue and yellow fever. Some with such breeding habits are
disproportionately important vectors because they are well-placed to pick up pathogens from
humans and pass them on. In contrast, no matter how voracious, mosquitoes that breed and feed
mainly in remote wetlands and salt marshes may well remain uninfected, and if they do happen to
become infected with a relevant pathogen, might seldom encounter humans to infect, in turn.

Eggs and oviposition

Electron micrograph of a mosquito egg


Mosquito habits of oviposition, the ways in which they lay their eggs, vary considerably between
species, and the morphologies of the eggs vary accordingly. The simplest procedure is that followed
by many species of Anopheles; like many other gracile species of aquatic insects, females just fly
over the water, bobbing up and down to the water surface and dropping eggs more or less singly.
The bobbing behavior occurs among some other aquatic insects as well, for
example mayflies and dragonflies; it is sometimes called "dapping". The eggs of Anopheles species
are roughly cigar-shaped and have floats down their sides. Females of many common species can
lay 100–200 eggs during the course of the adult phase of their life cycles. Even with high egg and
intergenerational mortality, over a period of several weeks, a single successful breeding pair can
create a population of thousands.
An egg raft of a Culex species, partly broken, showing
individual egg shapes
Some other species, for example members of the genus Mansonia, lay their eggs in arrays, attached
usually to the under-surfaces of waterlily pads. Their close relatives, the genus Coquillettidia, lay
their eggs similarly, but not attached to plants. Instead, the eggs form layers called "rafts" that float
on the water. This is a common mode of oviposition, and most species of Culex are known for the
habit, which also occurs in some other genera, such as Culiseta and Uranotaenia. Anopheles eggs
may on occasion cluster together on the water, too, but the clusters do not generally look much like
compactly glued rafts of eggs.
In species that lay their eggs in rafts, rafts do not form adventitiously; the female Culex settles
carefully on still water with its hind legs crossed, and as it lays the eggs one by one, it twitches to
arrange them into a head-down array that sticks together to form the raft. [29]
Aedes females generally drop their eggs singly, much as Anopheles do, but not as a rule into water.
Instead, they lay their eggs on damp mud or other surfaces near the water's edge. Such an
oviposition site commonly is the wall of a cavity such as a hollow stump or a container such as a
bucket or a discarded vehicle tire. The eggs generally do not hatch until they are flooded, and they
may have to withstand considerable desiccation before that happens. They are not resistant to
desiccation straight after oviposition, but must develop to a suitable degree first. After that, they can
enter diapause for several months if they dry out. Clutches of eggs of the majority of mosquito
species hatch as soon as possible, and all the eggs in the clutch hatch at much the same time. In
contrast, a batch of Aedes eggs in diapause tends to hatch irregularly over an extended period of
time. This makes it much more difficult to control such species than those mosquitoes whose larvae
can be killed all together as they hatch. Some Anopheles species do also behave in such a manner,
though not to the same degree of sophistication.[30]

Larva

Anatomy of a Culex larva
The mosquito larva has a well-developed head with mouth brushes used for feeding, a
large thorax with no legs, and a segmented abdomen.
Larvae breathe through spiracles located on their eighth abdominal segments, or through a siphon,
so must come to the surface frequently. The larvae spend most of their time feeding on algae,
bacteria, and other microbes in the surface microlayer.
Mosquito larvae have been investigated as prey of other Dipteran flies. Species such as Bezzia
nobilis within the family Ceratopogonidae have been observed in experiments to prey upon mosquito
larvae.[31][32]
They dive below the surface when disturbed. Larvae swim either through propulsion with their mouth
brushes, or by jerky movements of their entire bodies, giving them the common name of "wigglers"
or "wrigglers".
Larvae develop through four stages, or instars, after which they metamorphose into pupae. At the
end of each instar, the larvae molt, shedding their skins to allow for further growth.

Anopheles larva from southern Germany, about 8 mm long


 

Culex larva and pupa


 

Culex larvae plus one pupa

CREDITD TO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito

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