BACK TO LIST
GLOSSARY
Mosquitoes
The mosquito (ka) is an insect belonging to the Culicidae family of the order Diptera. About 50 species of the three sub-families of Culicidae (Toxorhynchitinae, Culicinae and Anophelinae) are found in Japan. The female of most species of mosquito sucks blood - in many cases the blood of warm-blooded animals - in order to nourish and mature her eggs. Her life-span is longer than that of the male.Three representative species of mosquito were fixed in acrylic resin and stored in the capsule: Culex pipiens pallens, a red-brown mosquito which breeds in sewage, ponds and water-holes and sucks blood at night from domestic fowl; a carrier of filariasis. Culex tritaeniorhynchus summorosus,a red-brown mosquito smaller than C. pipiens pallens breeding principally in rice paddies in western Japan and night-active, sucking blood from cattle and pigs; a carrier of Japanese encephalitis. Anopheles sinensis, a large paddy-breeding mosquito with distinguishing spots on its wings; it sucks blood from cattle and horses and carries malaria.