The Mosquitoes of Illinois (Diptera, Culicidae)

Abstract

Mosquitoes are midgelike insects of various sizes, some of them minute, some of them nearly a half inch long. They belong to the family Culicidae, which belongs to the order Diptera, embracing the common housefly and other two-winged flies. Mosquitoes have aquatic larvae called wiggle-tails, wigglers, or wrigglers, which transform to aquatic pupae called tumblers. The adults, which emerge from the pupae, are aerial. About 150 species of mosquitoes are known to occur in the United States and Canada, and 52 of these have been taken in Illinois. The Illinois mosquito fauna represents a combination of the northern and the southern mosquito faunas, a combination not yet treated in the various reports giving keys to the faunas of limited regions. The object of this paper is to provide means for making mosquito control programs more effective, first by furnishing illustrated keys and descriptions for the identification of mosquito species that occur in Illinois and states similar in climate, and second by summarizing information regarding the distribution, biology, and habitat preferences of the species.