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Hi. Im a mosquito. I like to buzz in your ears at night, ruin your family barbecue and feed on your blood. The egg My family consists of over raft The Breathing 3,500 species! tube, called pupa And you thought a trumpet
My life starts out in the water among an egg raft consisting of up to 300 eggs.
Our rafts can be found almost anywhere theres fresh or stagnant water: tin cans, barrels, horse troughs, ponds, pools, puddles, creeks, ditches, or marshy areas
As a pupa (a tumbler), I will continue to live under water up to four more days without eating. I oat around at the surface breathing through two tubes called trumpets.
I complete my metamorphisis into an adult mosquito within the pupal case. When Im ready to emerge, I split open the case to the surface of the water where I sit to dry o and allow my body to harden.
The larvae
Here I am as a larvae. Some call me a wiggler or a wriggler. I need to hang out in the water anywhere from seven to 14 days depending on the temperature.
As I grow, I molt (shed my skin) four times before reaching the pupa stage
4
Thorax Antenna
Adult mosquito
Wing
In order to keep myself alive and happy, I swim around in the water feeding on algae and small organisms. Frequently, I head back to the surface to breathe some air. Now that Im an adult female mosquito, the fun part begins! I y within a two-mile radius of where I was born to search for my favourite meal blood!
Abdomen
Head
When I bite with my proboscis, I stab two tubes into the skin: one to inject an enzyme that inhibits blood clotting; the other to suck the blood. I can drink up to
Probiscus
three times
my own weight in blood.
Don't worry, though. It would take about 1.2 million bites to drain all the blood from your body.
Sources: www.mosquitoes.org; www.nationalgeographic.com
Veins
Skin
I use exhaled carbon dioxide, body odours, temperature, and movement to hone in on my victims
How long I live for depends on several factors: temperature, humidity, and time of year. A mosquitos sex is also a big factor I will live about a month depending on the above factors, while most males live about a week.
QMI AGENCY