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Archive 1Archive 2

Is mosquito-borne virus recoverable from swamp water? or Are two bites required to become a disease vector?

After reading this article straight through, I got the impression that mosquitoes have a digestive system including trypsin, which seems digest blood. My question is still not clearly answered, though. Do mothers ever manage to slip blood into eggs? Or is it all digested, like milk or yolk. 174.3.179.14 (talk) 03:58, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Mosquitoes can not transmit their pathogens to their eggs. When a (female) mosquito bites and ingests blood from an infected host for the first time, the pathogen moves across the permeable stomach wall, and migrates through the mosquito's body and into the salivary glands so that it can then be injected into the next host.--Mr Fink (talk) 04:06, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
There is no blood in the eggs; it's all digested first. Entomology books talk about mosquito eggs having 'yolk' which is strange to think about. I know what yolk in a hen's egg looks like, and I find myself imagining something like that in a mosquito egg! Pchown (talk) 09:42, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 July 2017

although they are a pest control company i was able to find out things about the mosquito through them. i do feel however if anyone wanted to just call and talk or read up more about them on their site.

http://www.mosquito-authority.com/ 2603:3021:F00:6800:7D3D:748D:9C93:C206 (talk) 16:22, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. jd22292 (Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 16:28, 6 July 2017 (UTC)
I don't feel that links to mosquito control services are appropriate. An encyclopedia should describe mosquitoes and methods for controlling them, but it shouldn't endorse (or appear to endorse) particular pest control companies. Pchown (talk) 16:53, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Mosquito plural

Hi, Chiswick Chap. The plural of mosquito is "mosquitos" or "mosquitoes". You do not like this being stated in the lead. To avoid having to use plurals at all then in the lead (and thus avoid this controversy), I singularized the word. You do not like this either and claim it is "wholly wrong", when singular nouns in Wikipedia articles about groups is a completely common practice, and in fact collectively calling a group of nouns by its singular is a perfectly common convention in English generally. What's the real problem here? Wolfdog (talk) 20:02, 19 September 2017 (UTC)

Please leave likes and dislikes out of this: mentioning those is tantamount to personal attack, especially when repeated. In both British and American English, the standard plural is -oes. Merriam-Webster admits "also mosquitos", i.e. there is a secondary (uncommon, perhaps less acceptable) usage in -os. Normally we wouldn't bother to mention this in the lead as we are not a dictionary, there's Wiktionary for that sort of thing, and as a simple spelling variant it isn't worth cluttering up the lead for, especially in boldface. It's now in a footnote. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:09, 20 September 2017 (UTC)
I appreciate the footnote. Thanks. Wolfdog (talk) 22:47, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

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What eats the little beasties?

What eats mosquitoes besides the Toxorhynchites larva, the only mentioned predator? Birds? Other insects, like praying mantis, maybe? (I searched the article for "eat", "feed", "prey", "consume" without finding out.) Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 05:11, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

dragonflies eat mosquitoes. 174.3.179.14 (talk) 03:49, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Speaking of larva, that's usually the best time to get them. Little fish and aquatic insects presumably do.DMBFFF (talk) 21:24, 13 June 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 September 2018

Para maior controle ou prevenção além de repelentes que em alguns casos pessoas são alérgicas, pode se prevenir com telas mosquiteiras. Damasio Paz (talk) 16:59, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Google translate: For greater control or prevention in addition to repellents that in some cases people are allergic, it can be prevented with mosquito screens.
 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ‑‑ElHef (Meep?) 17:12, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Deletion of section "Urban ecology"

I have deleted the above-named section as per WPMoS because it is primary research. I am reproducing it here:

Urban ecology

A recent study collected and identified 20,551 adult female mosquitoes in five neighborhoods of the city of Baltimore over 2 years. Most of these mosquitos (73%) were invasive Asian tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus), but samples also included Culex (24%) and Aedes japonicus (2.4%) mosquitoes, both of which carry West Nile virus. The hosts of these mosquitos were determined by isolating DNA from the former. Invasive brown rats made up 71.7% of all Asian tiger blood meals. By contrast, birds were the most common victims of Culex, while Aedes appears to avoid birds altogether. Humans and cats each made up 13.3 percent of Aedes blood meals, while deer and dogs were bitten less frequently by all mosquito species. Notably, the study showed that different neighborhoods in Baltimore had different abundances and composition of mosquito species, dependent on the abundance of neglected containers for mosquito breeding, and how people choose to spend time outside.[1]

IiKkEe (talk) 16:06, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ Goodman, Heather; Egizi, Andrea; Fonseca, Dina M.; Leisnham, Paul T.; LaDeau, Shannon L. (2018-04-10). "Primary blood-hosts of mosquitoes are influenced by social and ecological conditions in a complex urban landscape". Parasites & Vectors. 11: 218. doi:10.1186/s13071-018-2779-7. ISSN 1756-3305.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)

Expanding Global Distribution and Lasting Effects sections from to-do list

Hello Fellow Wiki Editors, My classmate and I would like to update the Global distribution and Lasting effects sections of the Mosquito Wikipedia page. Our goal is to update the Global Distribution section with information regarding China, as there is no information for that area. We would also like to add information regarding the effects climate change has had on mosquito distribution and the lasting effects on public health. Please let me know if this would be an acceptable edit to make and if there are any suggestions for what we have proposed. Thank you! --Oconnom7 (talk) 16:56, 17 October 2018 (UTC)

Oconnom7 (talk) Go for it! Boldly edit: I will review your edits and "Thank" you if I agree... Regards, IiKkEe (talk) 16:11, 21 October 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 August 2019

"Mosquitoes have a ,segmented body, one pair of wings, three pairs of long, hair-like legs, feathery antennae, and elongated mouthparts." - contains unnecessary comment before "segmented body". Cryrobinson1 (talk) 16:56, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

arrow Reverted –Deacon Vorbis (carbon • videos) 18:05, 12 August 2019 (UTC)

Are bites incorrect?

"A female of most species has tube-like mouthparts (called a proboscis) which can pierce the skin of a host (colloquially but incorrectly referred to as a "bite")"

Why are there 22 further mentions of mosquito bite if it's incorrect? There's even a whole main section "Bites" and a whole article "Mosquito bite allergy". What's going on here? Can we replace bite with the correct term? What would that be? "pierce" or "piercing"? "sting"?

What's wrong with "bite", anyways? It's done with the mouth. Darsie42 (talk) 06:49, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Interesting point. Taking a very quick look at the Wikipedia entry for "bite", a bite requires the uses of jaws, which mosquitoes don't have. But, I don't know how to fix the article, either. Except "sting" would be incorrect, as stings are done with stingers, which are on the tail. Also, stings inject venom, they don't take in. SlowJog (talk) 12:52, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
Personally I think it makes sense to call it a bite. This seems to be the usual word, and it's used in Mullen and Durden, Medical and Veterinary Entomology. I'm not sure why the page is claiming it's incorrect, I think it's that claim which should be removed. Pchown (talk) 13:12, 9 August 2019 (UTC)
It does seem pedantic. I can agree with removing it. SlowJog (talk) 01:09, 11 August 2019 (UTC)
I agree with it being pedantic. "Mosquito bites" seems to be a very widespread expression. For instance, the NHS calls it a bite. Back in 1946, the term was used in a Nature's article's title. BernardoSulzbach (talk) 01:40, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
I removed it. But, feel free to continue the discussion. SlowJog (talk) 18:19, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
Thanks. I think that in order to mention it as being "incorrect" someone would have to provide the "correct" term. BernardoSulzbach (talk) 18:32, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Comment on Mosquito Article: Overall Review

This Wikipedia article appears to be the most robust article that I researched. To begin, the page is quite organized, including both headings and subheadings. For example, within the Feeding Behavior category, there is a subcategory called Saliva; these subcategories help make each category better defined and also keeps the layout of the page looking clean. The detailed organization of this page also makes it easier for other contributors to add necessary information into the appropriate area of the page. Furthermore, the page hyperlinks important words and phrases that have pertinent Wiki pages; the article also includes links to references and articles that have been used to extract information This shows that the information that has been included by the editors is reliably sourced and can also by verified by other readers and contributors. One of the most interesting pieces of information on this page is the significance of feeding on blood. Food in the form of blood enables females to either produce more eggs, and in some species, blood nutrients are needed to produce any offspring. Without blood, these females cannot birth eggs. A category that is missing from the article is one that summarizes the human interactions these flies have. Under the In Human Culture heading, there are descriptions of this fly’s presence in history, but there is no mention of the modern-day interactions these flies have with humans. This is important as it is vital to understand how mosquito behavior is perceived in order to understand the behaviors of this fly. Another category to be added would be under the category of Breeding:a subcategory on the male-female interaction of mosquitoes should be included in order to understand how females reach the egg-laying stage. The mating behaviors of animals create a more substantial understanding of how and why these animals may propagate their genes. The talk page for this fly is brimming with comments and contributions from other Wiki articles. The article is listed as being B-class, which means that there is significant importance to this fly. The importance of this fly may be ascribed to the relevance of human interaction this fly has, as well as the wide-spread distribution of these flies in areas occupied by humans. Furthermore, this fly has been rated as a level4-vital article and contributions to this article are encouraged. Because mosquitos have pertinence within human life and because of the existence of substantial research on this insect, this article is assumed to require much attention.The number of page views for the Mosquito article reaches into the thousands per day, and any contributions to this page are viewed by a wide audience. Thus, it is necessary to ensure that any information included on this page is up-to-date and accurate. With this being said, the popularity of this page means that the contributions on it can be fairly trusted as much discussion and many comments regarding the accuracy of information can be viewed on the Talk page.

Jillian Shah (talk) 23:36, 15 September 2019 (UTC)

Etymology/ Gender

Why does the gender shift from feminine (la mosca) to masculine (el mosquito) when adding the diminutive suffix? 2600:1702:1D00:9A80:D0B0:16A0:ADB6:6F32 (talk) 19:12, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

Carefully updating mosquito prejudices to more closely align with reality

In the current article it says "mosquitoes cause the deaths of more people than any other animal taxon". I know the article goes on to say that that is not exactly clear nor true in detail, but by changing this article to refer to the various diseases (malaria especially) as the enemies of both humans and mosquitoes could help explain reality to "human" people better than their naive parents or the current article could.

Most readers would assume that mosquitoes are in league with the protozoons to cause all this trauma for humans and other vertebrates. We (Wikipedians), obviously know that that is untrue. Malaria is 90% worse for (anopheles) mosquitoes than humans - it kills them all. It only kills very young and very old and/or sick humans.

In a mosquito version of Wikipedia, it could say (with about the same truth value), "humans (in certain areas) are the most dangerous things to eat - large percentages of them have malaria (and they live happily with it for years without death) and spread it amongst us. Sadly, some of us spread it between them before we die from it (remember sisters, none of us who get malaria ever breed fertile daughters - but those filthy fucking humans can happily breed while infected with it (luckily the don't transmit it to their children)). But some of them even have genetic mutations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sickle_cell_disease) that make them able to spread it within us with less risk to themselves. Malaria is an extremely urgent issue for us to:

a) fix - discover a way to remove it from our children and our food

b) avoid - discover a way to determine which humans (and other vertebrates) have malaria, and learn how to NEVER feed on them, even when drunk, stoned or high on any other vertebrate."

Chippo1 (talk) 17:01, 22 October 2019 (UTC)

TLDR. Do you have reliable sources for a suggested improvement? We don't allow original research.
 — Berean Hunter (talk) 17:45, 22 October 2019 (UTC)
Is it true that malaria renders mosquitoes infertile? I didn't know. Do you have a source for that? Pchown (talk) 20:18, 20 November 2020 (UTC)
No, it does not. This is a woefully bad misinterpretation of this particular news item about researchers genetically modifying mosquitoes to make them infertile: [1] ---- (Unsigned comment by Dyanega 23:43, 12 February 2021)

Grammar edit

Hi @MartyMcFly88: I don't think this was actually an error: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mosquito&curid=37789&diff=1006442366&oldid=1005330181 Invasive Spices (talk) 22:46, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

I don't think 'peoples' is a grammatically correct word. I may be wrong though, I am a non-native speaker. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ MartyMcFly88 (talk) 22:51, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

"People" and "peoples" are both correct. "People" means a number of humans. "Peoples" means a number of social groups of humans, for example "the peoples of Europe" calls attention to the fact that European humans are grouped into countries. Pchown (talk) 23:08, 12 February 2021 (UTC)

@Pchown thanks a lot for pointing this out. Didn't know this. MartyMcFly88 (talk) 17:07, 13 February 2021 (UTC)

Saglin

The Saglin edit seems to be in the wrong place, under human culture. I'm not sure how significant this research is, though. The linked article dates from 2008, so did the research yield any useful results? I haven't heard about it anywhere else. Pchown (talk) 13:05, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

I've now removed the saglin material. It was in the wrong part of the article (mosquitoes in human culture) but also it was research that was current thirteen years ago. I don't think it should go in the article unless it yielded useful results, and in that case, we need a more up to date link that describes the state of current knowledge and the way saglin is now used. Pchown (talk) 20:20, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

If this is the case, the associated article on Saglin should be removed if there has been no current research in 13 years Sideriver84 (talk) 05:49, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Bites

Bites should have its own article as well as the section in the main, like how the article for bees has another specifically for bee stings. My article about this was declined, and I've been told to argue here.

The argument against that, I suppose, is that bees are important for lots of reasons. People mostly care about mosquitoes because of the bites. There are lots of diptera that are related to mosquitoes, look similar, have an aquatic larval stage, but some bite and some don't. Far more attention gets paid to the ones that do. Pchown (talk) 17:30, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 August 2018 and 6 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Knutsodk, Oconnom7.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:30, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 March 2022

Here an Anopheles stephensi female is engorged with blood and beginning to pass unwanted liquid fractions of the blood to make room in its gut for more of the solid nutrients.

Please move the photo captioned Here an Anopheles stephensi female... from its current location to the "Egg development and blood digestion" section. That section refers to this specific photo: See the photograph of a feeding Anopheles stephensi: Note that the excreted droplet patently is not whole blood, being far more dilute. Having the photo elsewhere in the article makes the reference much less useful. I've put the picture in this section for your reference. 49.198.51.54 (talk) 02:34, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Well caught. Done [2]. Invasive Spices (talk) 21 March 2022 (UTC)


Mosquitoes/Mosquitos?

Both spellings are used extensively through the page, but Mosquitoes is a substantially more common usage worldwide. Shall we harmonise this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by StuartRalph (talk • contribs) 03:47, 20 May 2022 (UTC)

I was also wondering about this. Benjamin (talk) 08:43, 23 May 2022 (UTC)
Google (searched "mosquitos spelling") says: Miskito (plural noun: Mosquitos) "a member of a Central American people of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and Honduras." So maybe we should have disambiguation or something? Benjamin (talk) 08:46, 23 May 2022 (UTC)

Portuguese

Hello @Do-Do-Drop, @Dyanega and @Lopezsuarez: Several dictionaries do list mosquito as Portuguese.[3][4][5] The American Mosquito Control Association[6] is not the best source for Portuguese information but these dictionaries do agree with it. Invasive Spices (talk) 26 October 2022 (UTC)

Then you need to remove the implication that the name is a translation of the phrase "little fly", because that is demonstrably not how one forms a diminutive in Portuguese grammar. Yes, Portuguese speakers have adopted "mosquito" from Spanish, but the suffixes "-inho" or "-inha" are how any typical word of Portuguese origin is formed; "Little Ronaldo" is "Ronaldinho", not "Ronaldito", etc. See, e.g., [7]. At least in Brazil, neither mosquinha nor mosquito is used as a common name, and mosquitoes are instead referred to as "pernilongo" ([8]). Dyanega (talk) 15:36, 26 October 2022 (UTC)
That is true. DDD's text does imply the Portuguese diminutive is -ito and that the word traveled Portuguese⇨English. DDD I would support text stating that mosquito also has entered other languages including Portuguese. It should be outside the lede because this is neither directly about mosquitoes nor directly about English terminology. I think this should be a new section ==Terminology== or ==Etymology==. Invasive Spices (talk) 27 October 2022 (UTC)

Questions about Mosquitoes

I noticed that a few days ago, someone asked a question about identifying some insects, and it was removed. The removal was fair I think, but I wanted to say that I'm happy to try and answer questions about mosquitoes or other nuisance insects, subject to the limits of my own knowledge. If the answers seem to be generally interesting, I'll add them to the relevant article.

It's probably best to ask on my personal talk page, as article talk pages aren't really meant for questions—unless other editors are keen to see them too. Pchown (talk) 18:02, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

Temperature [11]

Citation 11 regarding minimum temperature for mosquito activity is an unsourced local news website article. Totally unreliable and should not be utilized as a citation. 2600:100F:B127:B1AC:C5DD:FC70:4DCB:6B30 (talk) 21:23, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

It was apparently based on a single species; that and the subsequent factoid were both overgeneralizations, I've removed them both. There are over 3000 mosquito species, we have no idea what the temperature tolerances are for all of them. Dyanega (talk) 21:34, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

Species diversity pattern of mosquitoes breeding in different habitats

It is fascinating how Mosquitoes can breed in different temperatures, but what is most interesting is that Mosquitoes can breed in one place or another temporarily, or they can choose one place permanently to breed. This makes the mosquito species diverse because of how well a different species can adapt to different habitats.

Lubna et al from the Brazilian Journal of Biology (Sánchez Gutierrez et al., 2023) Econt6 (talk) 00:16, 16 March 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, it may be so. Of course there are many species of mosquito, and it is not surprising that habitats can vary, both by species and dynamically. The article already mentions the use of temporary puddles, for example. Chiswick Chap (talk) 10:10, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
The range of habitats is almost certainly a driver of speciation, as it is with most animals. Some mosquito species specialise in temporary bodies of water, and these can be man-made, for example water that collects in abandoned car tyres. Others are very location-specific, for example Aedes sollicitans only breeds in salt marshes.
Mosquitoes are well adapted for what they do, but their behaviour is driven by quite simple cues. When mosquitoes breed in old car tyres, I expect it is because the water is producing the same chemical cues that would come from a natural puddle. Pchown (talk) 14:14, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
So the argument is that mosquito habitat versatility favours their evolution. Seems reasonable. I've searched with Google Scholar on the names, journal, and date given above, but cannot find the implied paper (its title would be a useful clue). I've also searched more generally; there are *heaps* of articles on mosquito evolution, but I don't see anything quite like this. Chiswick Chap (talk) 13:27, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: The Microbiology of College Life

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 January 2024 and 6 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ully16 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Ully16 (talk) 16:43, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

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