Life Cycle of Mosquito

The life cycle of a mosquito completes in the following four phases:

Eggs:

Mosquitoes copulate in the evening during flight. After copulation, female mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water. The female anopheles lays 40 to 100 eggs at a time. Their eggs are spindle in shape having lateral air floats. A culex lays 200-300 eggs at a time. Their eggs are cigar shaped.

Larva:

The eggs are hatched into larvae within 2-3 days under suitable conditions. These are transparent and emerge from the lower end of each egg. They are also called Wriggler because of their caterpillar like movements. The body of larvae is divided into head, thorax, and abdomen. The larva of a culex mosquito at rest hangs at an angle from the surface of water whereas the larva of an anopheles lies parallel to the surface of water.

Pupa:

After about a week, the larva moults for the last time and develops into pupa. They are commonly known as tumblers. The body of pupa is comma-shaped. The pupa of a mosquito is very active in comparison to the pupae of other insects. Pupa metamorphoses into mosquito after a short duration.

Adult mosquito:

After metamorphosis, the pupa develops the body organs. Thus animago is formed. Imago is a complete insect stage in which mosquito is completely young. The imago emerges when the pupalskin splits. The mosquito dries its wings by vibrating and then flies in air. After mating between male and female, the female starts laying eggs. The complete lifecycle from eggs to adult takes ten to several days.

Some related terms

Moulting:

The periodic shedding of the outer layer of the skin of larvae of insects to allow further growth is called Moulting.

Histogenesis:

Differentiation of tissues inside the puparium of insects is called Histogenesis.

Metamorphosis:

Period of rapid transformation from larval to adult stage is called metamorphosis.

Mosquito and Diseases

Mosquito is harmful to human as well as other animals. Mosquito causes different diseases like malaria, filaria, yellow fever, meningitis, encephalitis, dengue, etc.

Malarial fever:

Plasmodium is an intracellular blood parasite which causes malarial fever. Its primary host is human where the asexual cycle is completed. The secondary host is a female anopheles mosquito. When an infected female anopheles mosquito bites one, several sporozoites with its saliva enter the blood.

1. Control measures of mosquitoes
2. Destruction of breeding places
3. Killing of larvae and pupae by spraying kerosene in stagnant
4. Killing the adult mosquitoes by using insecticides
5. Personal protection by using anti-mosquitoes cream like odomos