Mosquitos

Mosquitoes, part of the family Culicidae, include approximately 3,700 species1. The word “mosquito” comes from the Spanish and Portuguese for “little fly”. These small insects have a slender, segmented body, one pair of wings, and three pairs of long, hair-like legs, along with specialized mouthparts for piercing and sucking. While all mosquitoes feed on nectar, female mosquitoes of some species also consume blood.

Citations

  1. National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) [Accessed 04/01/2026] ↩︎