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Photo#38711
mosquito - Wyeomyia mitchellii - female

mosquito - Wyeomyia mitchellii - Female
Lady Lake, Lake County, Florida, USA
December 3, 2005
After reading the info from Sean McCann, and the guide, I think this is correct? Have bromeliads, hind legs up and over the body, markings on the legs, except it was 2:34 in the afternoon!! ugh:)

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mosquito - Wyeomyia mitchellii - female mosquito - Wyeomyia mitchellii - female

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The white on the middle legs is not a good diagnostic tool. Today I examined 2 Wy. vanduzeei in Dr. Richard Darsie's collection, and this character was also present, but was variable. In the first specimen, the white was on the ventral portion of tarsomeres 1-3, and also extended to the partially up the tibia. On the second specimen, the white scales were on tarsomeres 2-4 and did not occur on the tibiae. It is conceivable that a Wy. vanduzeei may have a middle leg looking very much like that of Wy. mitchellii. I suppose that is why Dr. Darsie did not include these characters in his keys. The scales of the antepronotum are a more reliable character. In all likelihood, your specimen is a Wy. mitchellii, if only for the reason that it is by far the most common Wyeomyia in Florida.

 
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OK, so I was going through some older literature. The characters of the middle leg are not very good for separating Wy. vanduzeei from Wy. mitchellii. According to (1) and (2), the charcaters of the middle leg are nearly identical in these two species. Also, I suspect there is much intraspecific variability as well, as these two accounts differ slightly in detail. The take-home lesson is that the antepronotum is the way to go.

 
Thanks Sean,
I know what to look out for now.

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It is definitely Wyeomyia, either vanduzeei or mithchelii. The key I suppose is the dark-scaled antepronotum, which is quite a small feature to see from a picture. From the illustrations in my Darsie and Morris (1)(Fig. 211,pg. 71) there is no row of pale scales along the ocular line in vanduzeei. However, this figure was not intended to show this feature specifically. That being said, if the figure is correct, your mosquito seems to have a line of pale scales on the vertex. So my money is on mitchellii.
The posture is classic Wyeomyia. And they are day-biters. The good thing is that you have to try really hard to get bit by these, as they are slow and not decisive in the attack.

 
Thank you.
Easy target, when you are trying to be still to get a shot of something.