User:JonRichfield/mosquito
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mosquitoes are a family of about 3500 species of small insects in the order Diptera, the flies. Within that order they constitute the Family Culicidae. The word "mosquito" literally means "little fly" being the Spanish diminutive of mosca, a fly.[2][3]
JonRichfield/mosquito | |
---|---|
Mosquito: Typical External Anatomy 1 Head 1.1 proboscis, 1.2 flagellomere, 1.3 antennae, 1.4 palps, 1.5 Compound eye, 1.6 occiput 2 Thorax | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Diptera |
Superfamily: | Culicoidea |
Family: | Culicidae Meigen, 1818 [1] |
Subfamilies | |
Diversity | |
41 genera |
Mosquitoes as a family are cosmopolitan in temperate and tropical regions, and some species are seasonally active in subarctic tundra as well. Most species are blood-sucking ectoparasites, and many are harmful vectors of diseases of humans and various animals. Some of the diseases are of major importance, in particular protozoal diseases such as malaria, and viral diseases such as yellow fever, dengue and zika. However, no one species of mosquito transmits all the diseases; in fact, close relatives of many of the most important vector species and strains of mosquito, do not carry any disease.
Because of the diseases that many species transmit, mosquitoes have been characterised as among the deadliest creatures on Earth; in the early years of the 21st century the diseases they carry are estimated to cause more than a million deaths a year in total. The figures for morbidity and loss of productivity are in turn much higher, because most cases are not fatal.[4]