Exercise 2

MOSQUITOES

A. Study a mosquito whole mount:

Note the roughly spherical head, the large, nearly contiguous (dichoptic) compound
eyes, the long hairy antennae, the long slender proboscis and the maxillary palpi held stiff
on either side.
Note the fused thoracic segments. The anterior plate on the dorsum of the thorax is
the scutum; the smaller posterior plate behind it is the scutellum. Behind the scutellum is a
dome-shaped plate caked the post-scutellum.

Note the pairs of long slender legs. Identify the segments. Examine the tip of the legs.
Can you see the bristle-like empodium between the claws?
Study the wings. Note the scales covering the veins and lining the margins. These may
be found on the abdomen, legs and proboscis in some species. Identify the vestigial wings or
halters behind the true wings.
Examine the tip of the abdomen. Identify the paired cerci and postgenital plate in the
female and the claspers in male.
Is your specimen male or female? Examine.

 Antennae: are they plumose or pilose?

 Maxillary palpi: compare their length with that of the proboscis. This difference
is not present in Anopheles sp.
The 3 common genera in the Philippines are: Aedes, Culex and Anopheles. Can you
identify your specimen?
Note: A. Wings: Anopheles sp. has spotted wings.
B. Legs: Aedes sp. (“tiger mosquito”) has banded legs.
B. Study a mounted mosquito head. Can you identify the 7 parts comprising the proboscis?

 Labium – this is very prominent and is deeply grooved dorsally to hold the other stylet-
like parts and terminates in a pair of lobes called labella.
 Labrum-epipharynx – it is the strongest of the stylets and is deeply grooved ventrally.
 Mandibles – consist of a pair of needle-like stylets. In the male, they are greatly
reduced or absent.
 Maxillae – this consist of a pair of flattened stylets serrated distally and a pair of 4-
segmented palpi.
 Hypopharynx – this is a single median stylet.

A. Instructions to students:
1. Identify the structures described above.
2. Draw and label the parts mentioned starting from the following:
A. Mosquito whole mount parts
B. Mosquito head mount parts
A. Mosquito whole mount
 B. Mosquito head mount

Citation:
Laboratory Manual on Veterinary Entomology and Protozoology
Department of Paraclinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of the Philippines – Los Baños
Salcedo L. Eduardo, DVM, MS, PhD (London)
Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society