: any of a family (Culicidae) of dipteran flies with females that have a set of slender organs in the proboscis adapted to puncture the skin of animals and to suck their blood and that are in some cases vectors of serious diseases
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Changing temperature and rainfall patterns have allowed the mosquito species that transmit dengue to flourish in the U.S. and extend to areas where they were not seen previously.—Stephen J. Thomas, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2024 Quick Science Lesson Female mosquitos are always the ones to bite.—Sarah Kinonen, Allure, 27 Nov. 2024 Best Time to Visit: Summer is hot and buggy (with temps in the 90s and mosquitoes), and hurricanes are possible in the fall.—Graham Averill, Outside Online, 21 Jan. 2025 Disease Transmission and Biodiversity Loss: Changing weather patterns are expanding the habitats of disease-carrying vectors such as mosquitoes and ticks.—Bill Frist, Forbes, 13 Jan. 2025 See All Example Sentences for mosquito
Word History
Etymology
Spanish, diminutive of mosca fly, from Latin musca — more at midge
: any of numerous two-winged flies of which the females have a needlelike structure of the mouth region adapted to puncture the skin and suck the blood of animals
: any of numerous dipteran flies of the family Culicidae that have a rather narrow abdomen, usually a long slender rigid proboscis, and narrow wings with a fringe of scales on the margin and usually on each side of the wing veins, that have in the male broad feathery antennae and mouthparts not fitted for piercing and in the female slender antennae and a set of needlelike organs in the proboscis with which they puncture the skin of animals to suck the blood, that lay their eggs on the surface of stagnant water, that include many species which pass through several generations in the course of a year and hibernate as adults or winter in the egg state, and that include some species which are the only vectors of certain diseases see aedes, anopheles, culex
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