Overview

The biology including aspects of reproduction, feeding, dispersal and other activities is influencing the importance of mosquitoes as pest and the epidemiology of numerous mosquito-borne diseases.
Mosquitoes undergo complete metamorphosis, passing through four distinct stages during their life cycle: egg, larvae, pupa, adult / imago.
A complete cycle from egg to egg (whole developmental cycle) can be as fast as about 14 days or as long as several months in diapausing species.
Larval diapausing as well as hibernation or aestivation in females has been reported in some mosquito species.

Egg

The eggs of mosquitoes are brown or blackish and are laid singly or in rafts.

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Larva

Mosquitoes of the family Culicidae possess aquatic larval stages. Mosquito larvae, or wrigglers, occur in a variety of aquatic situations, depending on the species.

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Pupa

The pupa is often called tumbler. It is aquatic and quite active, and breathes at the surface through a pair of small trumpetlike structures on the thorax. It does not feed.

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Adult

Adults possess a long proboscis projecting forwards from the head, have scales on the wing veins and a fringe of scales along the posterior margin of the wing. Their wing venation is characteristic with the second, fourth and fifth longitudinal veins being branched (Goma, 1966).

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