Species Aedes vexans - Inland Floodwater Mosquito

Upland Flood Water Mosquito

Aedes vexans (Meigen)

Orig. Comb: Culex vexans Meigen, 1830

vexan - Latin for 'annoying' (1)

Larvae:

- Antennae are shorter than head

- Short siphon with a tuft half as long as the diameter of the base, between pecten teeth

- Saddle on anal segment incomplete

Adult Female:

- Unbanded proboscis

- Scutum with short brown scales and no obvious pattern

- Most easily recognized by the sideways 'B' shaped markings on each abdominal tergite.

< males

< females

Note pale 'B' shaped markings on each abdominal segment of first female image

Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory (2)

common in southern Canada and throughout most of the US, but is less abundant in the extreme south / Nearly cosmopolitan (3)

This is a floodwater mosquito, meaning that the eggs are laid offshore and when a heavy rain comes the water rises, floods the eggs and the egg hatches. Eggs are mainly found in freshwater pools and depressions.

Virtually any transient water can support Ae. vexans larvae, but rainpools in unshaded areas produce the largest broods. The species is most common in grassy pools that border wooded areas but specimens can be encountered in partially shaded woodland pools, roadside ditches, and vernal pools in open fields. - Wayne J. Crans, Rutgers University

Larvae: April-September

Adults: May-October

Mammalophilic - females prefer only the blood of mammals for protein meals.

Like all mosquitoes, they will also take sugary liquids like nectar, honeydew and sap.

- Overwinters as an egg

- Multivoltine

These mosquitos bite mammals and are known to travel distances from their breeding sites unlike other mosquitos. They are good vectors of EEE and the Cache Valley fever virus has been isolated from them

Aedes vexans is recognized as New Jersey’s most serious pest mosquito due to its abundance, widespread distribution and breeding potential in floodwater habitats. The mosquito probably does not reach the nuisance levels of Aedes sollicitans in coastal areas but causes annoyance over a much broader range of the state. The mosquito has not definitely been documented as a vector of disease but has been implicated as a secondary vector of eastern equine encephalitis and dog heartworm. - Wayne J. Crans, Rutgers University

Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory - FMEL (2)

Wiki

Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit - WRBU

Rutgers - Wayne J. Crans