← Back

Mosquito

Toxorhynchites brevipalpis

Classification

Class
Insecta
Order
Diptera
Family
Culicidae

Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a family of small flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word mosquito (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito) is Spanish and Portuguese for little fly. Mosquitoes have a slender, segmented body, one pair of wings, three pairs of long hair-like legs, and a specialized, highly elongated set of mouthparts forming a proboscis, adapted for piercing and sucking.

Distribution

(c) Alan Manson, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Alan Manson · CC-BY
Loading map…
Countries in the Picchu catalog
United States of America · 6