Not all mosquitoes bite!

Posted 7/10/21

Everglades National Park shared this information about mosquitoes: "Would it surprise you to learn that all adult mosquitoes feed on the nectar of flowers? This means that they are likely …

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Not all mosquitoes bite!

Posted

Everglades National Park shared this information about mosquitoes: "Would it surprise you to learn that all adult mosquitoes feed on the nectar of flowers? This means that they are likely pollinators. 

This is a close-up image of an elephant mosquito on the flower of a Spanish needles plant.
This is a close-up image of an elephant mosquito on the flower of a Spanish needles plant.

"Flower nectar is actually the only food for adult mosquitoes. The only reason some female mosquitoes take a blood meal is to get important nutrients they need to make eggs, which they don’t get otherwise.

The Florida native elephant mosquito, Toxorhynchites rutilus,  is huge – easily three or four times the size of other mosquitoes. 

What really sets this species apart is what they eat when they are larvae and what they don’t eat as adults. Elephant mosquito larvae eat other mosquito larvae. By doing so, female elephant mosquito larvae acquire all the nutrients needed to make eggs later in life. Female elephant mosquitoes do not take blood meals.

While all mosquitoes probably contribute to the pollination of plants to some extent, elephant mosquitoes keep their pollinator role while also helping to control the populations of mosquito species that do take blood meals.  

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