History:

The Malaria Mosquito scientifically called the Anopheles Mosquito. This genus was first named by J.W. Meigen in 1818. The name Anopheles translates from Greek, “an” meaning “not” and “ophelos” meaning “profit”, meaning “useless”.

Malaria originates from Africa but we find on every continent now. Over 200 million people infected every year. We attribute the Anopheles mosquito with being the reason that Malaria came to America 200 to 500 years ago. There entrance into America is dated around the time we brought slave ships here from Africa in the sixteenth and nineteenth century. Since then they have continued to have a dominant presence across most of America. The Malaria Mosquito is not as common as the Aedes Aegypti or Albopictus mosquito (this attributes to the aggressive nature of the Aedes larvae which can kill other larvae) but is still one of the three primary mosquito species that dominate America.

Life Cycle:

A full description of the life cycle: Aedes Albopictus blog.

The life cycle of the Malaria Mosquito is much the same as any other mosquito, with few variations:

• Larvae of the Anopheles mosquito do not have breathing tubes but instead must lie parallel to the surface of the water to breathe through spiracles.
• Unlike other mosquitoes, they cannot breed in stagnant or polluted water. This mosquito instead prefers to breed in clean water habitats like marshes or swamps.
• The female Anopheles mosquito will feed on both cattle and humans to get her blood and develop her eggs. They do not prefer one over the other.

Anatomy:

There are a few designations that separate the Malaria Mosquito from other mosquitoes. They are:

• The sensory palps of the Anopheles mosquito are as long as the proboscis.
• On the wings, they have blocks of black and white scales.
• When the Anopheles mosquito lands to rest it sticks its abdomen into the air instead of laying parallel to the surface like other mosquitoes.