Replication in computing involves sharing information so as to ensure consistency between redundant resources, such as software or hardware components, to improve reliability, fault-tolerance, or accessibility.
Terminology
Replication in computing can refer to:
data replication, where the same data is stored on multiple storage devices
computation replication, where the same computing task is executed many times.  Computational tasks may be:
replicated in space, where tasks are executed on separate devices
replicated in time, where tasks are executed repeatedly on a single device
Replication in space or in time is often linked to scheduling algorithms.[1]
Access to a replicated entity is typically uniform with access to a single non-replicated entity. The replication itself should be transparent to an external user. In a failure scenario, a failover of replicas should be hidden as much as possible with respect to quality of service (QoS).[2]
Computer scientists further describe replication as being either:
active replication, which is performed by processing the same request at every replica
passive replication, which involves processing every request on a single replica and transferring the result to the other replicas
When one master replica is designated to process all the requests, the system is using a primary-backup or master-slave scheme, which is predominant in high-availability clusters. In comparison, if any replica can process a request and distribute a new state, the system is using a multi-primary or multi-master scheme. In the latter case, some form of distributed concurrency control must be used, such as a distributed lock manager.
Load balancing differs from task replication, since it distributes a load of different computations across machines, and allows a single computation to be dropped in case of failure. Load balancing, however, sometimes uses data replication (especially multi-master replication) internally, to distribute its data among machines.
Backup differs from replication in that the saved copy of data remains unchanged for a long period of time.[3] Replicas, on the other hand, undergo frequent updates and quickly lose any historical state. Replication is one of the oldest and most important topics in the overall area of distributed systems.
Data replication and computation replication both require processes to handle incoming events. Processes for data replication are passive and operate only to maintain the stored data, reply to read requests and apply updates. Computation replication is usually performed to provide fault-tolerance, and take over an operation if one component fails. In both cases, the underlying needs are to ensure that the replicas see the same events in equivalent orders, so that they stay in consistent states and any replica can respond to queries.
Replication models in distributed systems
Three widely cited models exist for data replication, each having its own properties and performance:
Transactional replication – used for replicating transactional data, such as a database. The one-copy serializability model is employed, which defines valid outcomes of a transaction on replicated data in accordance with the overall ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) properties that transactional systems seek to guarantee.
State machine replication – assumes that the replicated process is a deterministic finite automaton and that atomic broadcast of every event is possible. It is based on distributed consensus and has a great deal in common with the transactional replication model. This is sometimes mistakenly used as a synonym of active replication. State machine replication is usually implemented by a replicated log consisting of multiple subsequent rounds of the Paxos algorithm. This was popularized by Google's Chubby system, and is the core behind the open-source Keyspace data store.[4][5]
Virtual synchrony – involves a group of processes which cooperate to replicate in-memory data or to coordinate actions. The model defines a distributed entity called a process group. A process can join a group and is provided with a checkpoint containing the current state of the data replicated by group members. Processes can then send multicasts to the group and will see incoming multicasts in the identical order. Membership changes are handled as a special multicast that delivers a new "membership view" to the processes in the group.
Database replication
Database replication can be used on many database management systems (DBMS), usually with a master-slave relationship between the original and the copies. The master logs the updates, which then ripple through to the slaves. Each slave outputs a message stating that it has received the update successfully, thus allowing the sending of subsequent updates.
In Multi-master replication, updates can be submitted to any database node, and then ripple through to other servers. This is often desired but introduces substantially increased costs and complexity which may make it impractical in some situations. The most common challenge that exists in multi-master replication is transactional conflict prevention or resolution. Most synchronous (or eager) replication solutions perform conflict prevention, while asynchronous (or lazy) solutions have to perform conflict resolution. For instance, if the same record is changed on two nodes simultaneously, an eager replication system would detect the conflict before confirming the commit and abort one of the transactions. A lazy replication system would allow both transactions to commit and run a conflict resolution during resynchronization.[6] The resolution of such a conflict may be based on a timestamp of the transaction, on the hierarchy of the origin nodes or on much more complex logic, which decides consistently across all nodes.
Database replication becomes more complex when it scales up, which is usually described in two dimensions: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal scale-up has more data replicas, while vertical scale-up has data replicas located at greater physical distances. Problems raised by horizontal scale-up can be alleviated by a multi-layer multi-view access protocol. The early problems of vertical scale-up have largely been addressed by improving Internet reliability and performance.[7]
When data is replicated between database servers, so that the information remains consistent throughout the database system and users cannot tell or even know which server in the DBMS they are using, the system is said to exhibit replication transparency.
Disk storage replication

Active (real-time) storage replication is usually implemented by distributing updates of a block device to several physical hard disks. This way, any file system supported by the operating system can be replicated without modification, as the file system code works on a level above the block device driver layer. It is implemented either in hardware (in a disk array controller) or in software (in a device driver).
The most basic method is disk mirroring, typical for locally connected disks. The storage industry narrows the definitions, so mirroring is a local (short-distance) operation. A replication is extendable across a computer network, so that the disks can be located in physically distant locations, and the master-slave database replication model is usually applied. The purpose of replication is to prevent damage from failures or disasters that may occur in one location – or in case such events do occur, to improve the ability to recover data. For replication, latency is the key factor because it determines either how far apart the sites can be or the type of replication that can be employed.
The main characteristic of such cross-site replication is how write operations are handled, through either synchronous or asynchronous replication. The main difference is that synchronous replication needs to wait for the destination server in any write operation.
Synchronous replication guarantees "zero data loss" by the means of atomic write operations, where the write operation is not considered complete until acknowledged by both the local and remote storage. Most applications wait for a write transaction to complete before proceeding with further work, hence overall performance decreases considerably. Inherently, performance drops proportionally to distance, as minimum latency is dictated by the speed of light. For 10km distance, the fastest possible roundtrip takes 67 μs, whereas an entire local cached write completes in about 10–20 μs.
In Asynchronous replication, the write operation is considered complete as soon as local storage acknowledges it. Remote storage is updated with a small lag. Performance is greatly increased, but in case of a local storage failure, the remote storage is not guaranteed to have the current copy of data (the most recent data may be lost).
Semi-synchronous replication typically considers a write operation complete when acknowledged by local storage and received or logged by the remote server. The actual remote write is performed asynchronously, resulting in better performance but remote storage will lag behind the local storage, so that there is no guarantee of durability (i.e.: seamless transparency) in the case of local storage failure.
Point-in-time replication produces periodic snapshots which are replicated instead of primary storage. This is intended to replicate only the changed data instead of the entire volume. As less information is replicated using this method, replication can occur over less-expensive bandwidth links such as iSCSI or T1 instead of fiber optic lines.
Implementations

Many distributed filesystems use replication to ensure fault tolerance and avoid a single point of failure.
Many commercial synchronous replication systems do not freeze when the remote replica fails or loses connection – behaviour which guarantees zero data loss – but proceed to operate locally, losing the desired zero recovery point objective.
Techniques of wide-area network (WAN) optimization can be applied to address the limits imposed by latency.
File-based replication
File-based replication conducts data replication at the logical level (i.e.: individual data files) rather than at the storage block level. There are many different ways of performing this, which almost exclusively rely on software.
Capture with a kernel driver
A kernel driver (specifically a filter driver) can be used to intercept calls to the filesystem functions, capturing any activity as it occurs. This utilises the same type of technology that real-time active virus checkers employ. At this level, logical file operations are captured like file open, write, delete, etc. The kernel driver transmits these commands to another process, generally over a network to a different machine, which will mimic the operations of the source machine. Like block-level storage replication, the file-level replication allows both synchronous and asynchronous modes. In synchronous mode, write operations on the source machine are held and not allowed to occur until the destination machine has acknowledged the successful replication. Synchronous mode is less common with file replication products although a few solutions exist.
File-level replication solutions allow for informed decisions about replication based on the location and type of the file. For example, temporary files or parts of a filesystem that hold no business value could be excluded. The data transmitted can also be more granular; if an application writes 100 bytes, only the 100 bytes are transmitted instead of a complete disk block (generally 4096 bytes). This substantially reduces the amount of data sent from the source machine and the storage burden on the destination machine.
Drawbacks of this software-only solution include the requirement for implementation and maintenance on the operating system level, and an increased burden on the machine's processing power.
File system journal replication
Similarly to database transaction logs, many file systems have the ability to journal their activity. The journal can be sent to another machine, either periodically or in real time by streaming. On the replica side, the journal can be used to play back file system modifications.
One of the notable implementations is Microsoft's System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), released in 2005, which performs periodic updates but does not offer real-time replication.
Batch replication
This is the process of comparing the source and destination file systems and ensuring that the destination matches the source. The key benefit is that such solutions are generally free or inexpensive. The downside is that the process of synchronizing them is quite system-intensive, and consequently this process generally runs infrequently.
One of the notable implementations is rsync.
Distributed shared memory replication

Another example of using replication appears in distributed shared memory systems, where many nodes of the system share the same page of memory. This usually means that each node has a separate copy (replica) of this page.
Primary-backup and multi-primary replication
Many classical approaches to replication are based on a primary-backup model where one device or process has unilateral control over one or more other processes or devices. For example, the primary might perform some computation, streaming a log of updates to a backup (standby) process, which can then take over if the primary fails. This approach is common for replicating databases, despite the risk that if a portion of the log is lost during a failure, the backup might not be in a state identical to the primary, and transactions could then be lost.
A weakness of primary-backup schemes is that only one is actually performing operations. Fault-tolerance is gained, but the identical backup system doubles the costs. For this reason, starting c.1985, the distributed systems research community began to explore alternative methods of replicating data. An outgrowth of this work was the emergence of schemes in which a group of replicas could cooperate, with each process acting as a backup while also handling a share of the workload.
Computer scientist Jim Gray analyzed multi-primary replication schemes under the transactional model and published a widely cited paper skeptical of the approach "The Dangers of Replication and a Solution".[8][9] He argued that unless the data splits in some natural way so that the database can be treated as n n disjoint sub-databases, concurrency control conflicts will result in seriously degraded performance and the group of replicas will probably slow as a function of n. Gray suggested that the most common approaches are likely to result in degradation that scales as O(n³).  His solution, which is to partition the data, is only viable in situations where data actually has a natural partitioning key.
In the 1985–1987, the virtual synchrony model was proposed and emerged as a widely adopted standard (it was used in the Isis Toolkit, Horus, Transis, Ensemble, Totem, Spread, C-Ensemble, Phoenix and Quicksilver systems, and is the basis for the CORBA fault-tolerant computing standard). Virtual synchrony permits a multi-primary approach in which a group of processes cooperates to parallelize some aspects of request processing. The scheme can only be used for some forms of in-memory data, but can provide linear speedups in the size of the group.
A number of modern products support similar schemes. For example, the Spread Toolkit supports this same virtual synchrony model and can be used to implement a multi-primary replication scheme; it would also be possible to use C-Ensemble or Quicksilver in this manner. WANdisco permits active replication where every node on a network is an exact copy or replica and hence every node on the network is active at one time; this scheme is optimized for use in a wide area network (WAN).
See also

Fault-tolerant computer system
Change data capture
Cloud computing
Cluster (computing)
Cluster manager
Log Shipping
Mirror website
Optimistic replication
Process group
Software transactional memory
Transparency
Virtual synchrony


Mosquitoes (alternate spelling mosquitos) are a group of about 3500 species of small insects that are a type of fly (order Diptera). Within that order they constitute the family Culicidae (from the Latin culex meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito)[2] is Spanish for "little fly".[3] Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, a pair of wings, three pairs of long hair-like legs, feathery antennae, and elongated mouthparts.
Mosquitoes diverged from other insects about 226 million years ago. Fossils of primitive mosquitoes have been found that are over 90 million years old; fossils similar to modern mosquitoes, 79 million years old; fossils identical to modern mosquitoes, 46 million years old. The life cycle consists of the egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Eggs are laid on the water surface; they hatch into motile larvae which feed on aquatic algae and organic material; pupae are breathing non-flying primitive adults.
Females of most species have tube-like mouthparts (called a proboscis) which can pierce the skin of the host (colloquially but incorrectly referred to as a "bite") in order to extract blood, which contains protein and iron needed to produce eggs. Thousands of mosquito species feed on the blood of various hosts — vertebrates, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and  some fish; and some invertebrates, primarily other arthropods. This loss of blood is seldom of any importance to the host.
The saliva of the mosquito transmitted to the host with the bite can cause itching and a rash. In addition, many species of mosquitoes inject or ingest (or both) disease-causing organisms with the bite and are thus a vector for the transmission of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, Chikungunya, West Nile virus, dengue fever, filariasis, Zika virus and other arboviruses. Mosquitoes kill more people than any other animal: over 700,000 each year.[4][5][6]
Fossil record and evolution
The oldest known mosquito with an anatomy similar to modern species was found in 79-million-year-old Canadian amber from the Cretaceous.[7] An older sister species with more primitive features was found in Burmese amber that is 90 to 100 million years old.[8] Two mosquito fossils have been found that show very little morphological change in modern mosquitoes against their counterpart from 46 million years ago.[9] These fossils are also the oldest ever found to have blood preserved within their abdomens.[10][11] Despite no fossils being found earlier than the Cretaceous, recent studies suggest that the earliest divergence of mosquitoes between the lineages leading to Anophelinae and Culicinae occurred 226 million years ago.[12]
The mosquito Anopheles gambiae is currently undergoing speciation into the M(opti) and S(avanah) molecular forms. Consequently, some pesticides that work on the M form no longer work on the S form.[13]
Over 3,500 species of the Culicidae have already been described.[14] They are generally divided into two subfamilies which in turn comprise some 43 genera. These figures are subject to continual change, as more species are discovered, and as DNA studies compel rearrangement of the taxonomy of the family. The two main subfamilies are the Anophelinae and Culicinae, with their genera as shown in the subsection below.[15] The distinction is of great practical importance because the two subfamilies tend to differ in their significance as vectors of different classes of diseases. Roughly speaking, arboviral diseases such as yellow fever and dengue fever tend to be transmitted by Culicine species, not necessarily in the genus Culex. Some transmit various species of avian malaria, but it is not clear that they ever transmit any form of human malaria. Some species do however transmit various forms of filariasis, much as many Simuliidae do.
Taxonomy
Family
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae (from the Latin culex, genitive culicis, meaning "midge" or "gnat").[16] Superficially, mosquitoes resemble crane flies (family Tipulidae) and chironomid flies (family Chironomidae).
Subfamilies
Anophelinae
Culicinae
Genera

Aedeomyia
Aedes
Anopheles
Armigeres
Ayurakitia
Borachinda
Coquillettidia
Culex
Culiseta
Deinocerites
Eretmapodites
Ficalbia
Galindomyia
Haemagogus
Heizmannia
Hodgesia
Isostomyia
Johnbelkinia
Kimia
Limatus
Lutzia
Malaya
Mansonia
Maorigoeldia
Mimomyia
Onirion
Opifex
Orthopodomyia
Psorophora
Runchomyia
Sabethes
Shannoniana
Topomyia
Toxorhynchites
Trichoprosopon
Tripteroides
Udaya
Uranotaenia
Verrallina
Wyeomyia

Species
Over 3,500 species of mosquitoes have thus far been described in the scientific literature.[17][18]
Lifecycle

Overview
Like all flies, mosquitoes go through four stages in their lifecycles: egg, larva, pupa, and adult or imago. The first three stages—egg, larva, and pupa—are largely aquatic. These stages typically last 5 to 14 days, depending on the species and the ambient temperature, but there are important exceptions. Mosquitoes living in regions where some seasons are freezing or waterless spend part of the year in diapause; they delay their development, typically for months, and carry on with life only when there is enough water or warmth for their needs. For instance, Wyeomyia larvae typically get frozen into solid lumps of ice during winter and only complete their development in spring. The eggs of some species of Aedes remain unharmed in diapause if they dry out, and hatch later when they are covered by water.
Eggs hatch to become larvae, which grow until they are able to change into pupae. The adult mosquito emerges from the mature pupa as it floats at the water surface. Bloodsucking mosquitoes, depending on species, sex, and weather conditions, have potential adult lifespans ranging from as short as a week to as long as several months. Some species can overwinter as adults in diapause.[19][20]
Breeding
In most species, adult females lay their eggs in stagnant water: some lay near the water's edge while others attach their eggs to aquatic plants. Each species selects the situation of the water into which it lays its eggs and does so according to its own ecological adaptations. Some are generalists and are not very fussy. Some breed in lakes, some in temporary puddles. Some breed in marshes, some in salt-marshes. Among those that breed in salt water, some are equally at home in fresh and salt water up to about one-third the concentration of seawater, whereas others must acclimatize themselves to the salinity.[21] Such differences are important because certain ecological preferences keep mosquitoes away from most humans, whereas other preferences bring them right into houses at night.
Some species of mosquitoes prefer to breed in phytotelmata (natural reservoirs on plants), such as rainwater accumulated in holes in tree trunks, or in the leaf-axils of bromeliads. Some specialize in the liquid in pitchers of particular species of pitcher plants, their larvae feeding on decaying insects that had drowned there or on the associated bacteria; the genus Wyeomyia provides such examples — the harmless Wyeomyia smithii breeds only in the pitchers of Sarracenia purpurea.[22]
However, some of the species of mosquitoes that are adapted to breeding in phytotelmata are dangerous disease vectors. In nature, they might occupy anything from a hollow tree trunk to a cupped leaf. Such species typically take readily to breeding in artificial water containers. Such casual puddles are important breeding places for some of the most serious disease vectors, such as species of Aedes that transmit dengue and yellow fever. Some with such breeding habits are disproportionately important vectors because they are well-placed to pick up pathogens from humans and pass them on. In contrast, no matter how voracious, mosquitoes that breed and feed mainly in remote wetlands and salt marshes may well remain uninfected, and if they do happen to become infected with a relevant pathogen, might seldom encounter humans to infect, in turn.
Eggs and oviposition

Mosquito habits of oviposition, the ways in which they lay their eggs, vary considerably between species, and the morphologies of the eggs vary accordingly. The simplest procedure is that followed by many species of Anopheles; like many other gracile species of aquatic insects, females just fly over the water, bobbing up and down to the water surface and dropping eggs more or less singly. The bobbing behavior occurs among some other aquatic insects as well, for example mayflies and dragonflies; it is sometimes called "dapping". The eggs of Anopheles species are roughly cigar-shaped and have floats down their sides. Females of many common species can lay 100–200 eggs during the course of the adult phase of their lifecycles. Even with high egg and intergenerational mortality, over a period of several weeks, a single successful breeding pair can create a population of thousands.

Some other species, for example members of the genus Mansonia, lay their eggs in arrays, attached usually to the under-surfaces of waterlily pads. Their close relatives, the genus Coquillettidia, lay their eggs similarly, but not attached to plants. Instead, the eggs form layers called "rafts" that float on the water. This is a common mode of oviposition, and most species of Culex are known for the habit, which also occurs in some other genera, such as Culiseta and Uranotaenia. Anopheles eggs may on occasion cluster together on the water, too, but the clusters do not generally look much like compactly glued rafts of eggs.
In species that lay their eggs in rafts, rafts do not form adventitiously; the female Culex settles carefully on still water with its hind legs crossed, and as it lays the eggs one by one, it twitches to arrange them into a head-down array that sticks together to form the raft.[23]
Aedes females generally drop their eggs singly, much as Anopheles do, but not as a rule into water. Instead, they lay their eggs on damp mud or other surfaces near the water's edge. Such an oviposition site commonly is the wall of a cavity such as a hollow stump or a container such as a bucket or a discarded vehicle tire. The eggs generally do not hatch until they are flooded, and they may have to withstand considerable desiccation before that happens. They are not resistant to desiccation straight after oviposition, but must develop to a suitable degree first. Once they have achieved that, however, they can enter diapause for several months if they dry out. Clutches of eggs of the majority of mosquito species hatch as soon as possible, and all the eggs in the clutch hatch at much the same time. In contrast, a batch of Aedes eggs in diapause tends to hatch irregularly over an extended period of time. This makes it much more difficult to control such species than those mosquitoes whose larvae can be killed all together as they hatch. Some Anopheles species do also behave in such a manner, though not to the same degree of sophistication.[24]
Larva

The mosquito larva has a well-developed head with mouth brushes used for feeding, a large thorax with no legs, and a segmented abdomen.
Larvae breathe through spiracles located on their eighth abdominal segments, or through a siphon, so must come to the surface frequently. The larvae spend most of their time feeding on algae, bacteria, and other microbes in the surface microlayer.
They dive below the surface only when disturbed. Larvae swim either through propulsion with their mouth brushes, or by jerky movements of their entire bodies, giving them the common name of "wigglers" or "wrigglers".
Larvae develop through four stages, or instars, after which they metamorphose into pupae. At the end of each instar, the larvae molt, shedding their skins to allow for further growth.

Anopheles larva from southern Germany, about 8mm long
Culex larva and pupa
Culex larvae plus one pupa

Pupa
As seen in its lateral aspect, the mosquito pupa is comma-shaped. The head and thorax are merged into a cephalothorax, with the abdomen curving around underneath. The pupa can swim actively by flipping its abdomen, and it is commonly called a "tumbler" because of its swimming action. As with the larva, the pupa of most species must come to the surface frequently to breathe, which they do through a pair of respiratory trumpets on their cephalothoraxes. However, pupae do not feed during this stage; typically they pass their time hanging from the surface of the water by their respiratory trumpets. If alarmed, say by a passing shadow, they nimbly swim downwards by flipping their abdomens in much the same way as the larvae do. If undisturbed, they soon float up again.
After a few days or longer, depending on the temperature and other circumstances, the pupa rises to the water surface, the dorsal surface of its cephalothorax splits, and the adult mosquito emerges. The pupa is less active than the larva because it does not feed, whereas the larva feeds constantly.[23]
Adult

The period of development from egg to adult varies among species and is strongly influenced by ambient temperature. Some species of mosquitoes can develop from egg to adult in as few as five days, but a more typical period of development in tropical conditions would be some 40 days or more for most species. The variation of the body size in adult mosquitoes depends on the density of the larval population and food supply within the breeding water.
Adult mosquitoes usually mate within a few days after emerging from the pupal stage. In most species, the males form large swarms, usually around dusk, and the females fly into the swarms to mate.
Males typically live for about 5–7 days, feeding on nectar and other sources of sugar. After obtaining a full blood meal, the female will rest for a few days while the blood is digested and eggs are developed. This process depends on the temperature, but usually takes two to three days in tropical conditions. Once the eggs are fully developed, the female lays them and resumes host-seeking.
The cycle repeats itself until the female dies. While females can live longer than a month in captivity, most do not live longer than one to two weeks in nature. Their lifespans depend on temperature, humidity, and their ability to successfully obtain a blood meal while avoiding host defenses and predators.
The length of the adult is typically between 3mm and 6mm. The smallest known mosquitoes are around 2mm (0.1in), and the largest around 19mm (0.7in).[25] Mosquitoes typically weigh around 5mg. All mosquitoes have slender bodies with three segments: a head, a thorax and an abdomen.
The head is specialized for receiving sensory information and for feeding. It has eyes and a pair of long, many-segmented antennae. The antennae are important for detecting host odors, as well as odors of breeding sites where females lay eggs. In all mosquito species, the antennae of the males in comparison to the females are noticeably bushier and contain auditory receptors to detect the characteristic whine of the females.

The compound eyes are distinctly separated from one another. Their larvae only possess a pit-eye ocellus. The compound eyes of adults develop in a separate region of the head.[26] New ommatidia are added in semicircular rows at the rear of the eye. During the first phase of growth, this leads to individual ommatidia being square, but later in development they become hexagonal. The hexagonal pattern will only become visible when the carapace of the stage with square eyes is molted.[26]
The head also has an elongated, forward-projecting, stinger-like proboscis used for feeding, and two sensory palps. The maxillary palps of the males are longer than their proboscises, whereas the females’ maxillary palps are much shorter. In typical bloodsucking species, the female has an elongated proboscis.
The thorax is specialized for locomotion. Three pairs of legs and a pair of wings are attached to the thorax. The insect wing is an outgrowth of the exoskeleton. The Anopheles mosquito can fly for up to four hours continuously at 1to 2km/h (0.6–1mph),[27] traveling up to 12km (7.5mi) in a night. Males beat their wings between 450 and 600 times per second.[28]
The abdomen is specialized for food digestion and egg development; the abdomen of a mosquito can hold three times its own weight in blood.[29] This segment expands considerably when a female takes a blood meal. The blood is digested over time, serving as a source of protein for the production of eggs, which gradually fill the abdomen.
Feeding by adults

Typically, both male and female mosquitoes feed on nectar and plant juices, but in many species the mouthparts of the females are adapted for piercing the skin of animal hosts and sucking their blood as ectoparasites. In many species, the female needs to obtain nutrients from a blood meal before it can produce eggs, whereas in many other species, it can produce more eggs after a blood meal. A mosquito has a variety of ways of finding its prey, including chemical, visual, and heat sensors.[30] Both plant materials and blood are useful sources of energy in the form of sugars, and blood also supplies more concentrated nutrients, such as lipids, but the most important function of blood meals is to obtain proteins as materials for egg production.
Among humans, the feeding preferences of mosquitoes typically include those with type O blood, those who are heavy breathers, those with an abundance of skin bacteria, those with high body heat, and pregnant women.[31][32] Individuals' attractiveness to mosquitoes also has a heritable, genetically-controlled component.[33]
When a female reproduces without such parasitic meals, it is said to practice autogenous reproduction, as in Toxorhynchites; otherwise, the reproduction may be termed anautogenous, as occurs in mosquito species that serve as disease vectors, particularly Anopheles and some of the most important disease vectors in the genus Aedes. In contrast, some mosquitoes, for example, many Culex, are partially anautogenous: they do not need a blood meal for their first cycle of egg production, which they produce autogenously; however, subsequent clutches of eggs are produced anautogenously, at which point their disease vectoring activity becomes operative.[34]

Female mosquitoes hunt their blood host by detecting organic substances such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom alcohol, found in exhaled breath) produced from the host, and through visual recognition. Mosquitoes prefer some people over others. The preferred victim's sweat smells more attractive than others' because of the proportions of the carbon dioxide, octenol, and other compounds that make up body odor.[35] The most powerful semiochemical that triggers the keen sense of smell of Culex quinquefasciatus is nonanal.[36] Another compound identified in human blood that attracts mosquitoes is sulcatone or 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, especially for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes with the odor receptor gene Or4.[37] A large part of the mosquito’s sense of smell, or olfactory system, is devoted to sniffing out blood sources. Of 72 types of odor receptors on its antennae, at least 27 are tuned to detect chemicals found in perspiration.[38] In Aedes, the search for a host takes place in two phases. First, the mosquito exhibits a nonspecific searching behavior until the perception of a host's stimulants, then it follows a targeted approach.[39]
Most mosquito species are crepuscular (dawn or dusk) feeders. During the heat of the day, most mosquitoes rest in a cool place and wait for the evenings, although they may still bite if disturbed.[40] Some species, such as the Asian tiger mosquito, are known to fly and feed during daytime.[41]
Prior to and during blood feeding, blood-sucking mosquitoes inject saliva into the bodies of their source(s) of blood. This saliva serves as an anticoagulant; without it the female mosquito's proboscis might become clogged with blood clots. The saliva also is the main route by which mosquito physiology offers passenger pathogens access to the hosts' bloodstream. The salivary glands are a major target to most pathogens, whence they find their way into the host via the saliva.
A mosquito bite often leaves an itchy weal, a raised bump, on the victim's skin, which is caused by histamines trying to fight off the protein left by the attacking insect.[42]
Mosquitoes of the genus Toxorhynchites never drink blood.[43] This genus includes the largest extant mosquitoes, the larvae of which prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes. These mosquito eaters have been used in the past as mosquito control agents, with varying success.[44]
Hosts of blood-feeding mosquito species

Many, if not all, blood-sucking species of mosquitoes are fairly selective feeders that specialise in particular host species, though they often relax their selectivity when they experience severe competition for food, defensive activity on the part of the hosts, or starvation. Some species feed selectively on monkeys, while others prefer particular kinds of birds, but they become less selective as conditions become more difficult. For example, Culiseta melanura sucks the blood of passerine birds for preference, and such birds are typically the main reservoir of the Eastern equine encephalitis virus in North America. Early in the season while mosquito numbers are low, they concentrate on passerine hosts, but as mosquito numbers rise and the birds are forced to defend themselves more vigorously, the mosquitoes become less selective of hosts. Soon the mosquitoes begin attacking mammals more readily, thereby becoming the major vector of the virus, and causing epidemics of the disease, most conspicuously in humans and horses.[45]
Even more dramatically, in most of its range in North America, the main vector for the Western equine encephalitis virus is Culex tarsalis, because it is known to feed variously on mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Even fish may be attacked by some mosquito species if they expose themselves above water level, as mudskippers do.[45][46]
Some species of blood-sucking flies, such as many of the Ceratopogonidae, will attack large, live insects and suck their haemolymph[47] and others, such as the so-called "jackal flies" (Milichiidae), will attack the recently dead prey of say, crab spiders (Thomisidae).[48] In 1969 it was reported that some species of anautogenous mosquitoes would feed on the haemolymph of caterpillars.[49] Other observations include mosquitoes feeding on cicadas[50] and mantids.[51] In 2014 it was shown that malaria-transmitting mosquitoes actively seek out some species of caterpillars and feed on their haemolymph,[52] and do so to the caterpillar's apparent physical detriment.[53]
Mouthparts
Mosquito mouthparts are very specialized, particularly those of the females, which in most species are adapted to piercing skin and then sucking blood. Apart from bloodsucking, the females generally also drink assorted fluids rich in dissolved sugar, such as nectar and honeydew, to obtain the energy they need. For this, their blood-sucking mouthparts are perfectly adequate. In contrast, male mosquitoes are not bloodsuckers; they only drink sugary fluids. Accordingly, their mouthparts do not require the same degree of specialization as those of females.[54]
Externally, the most obvious feeding structure of the mosquito is the proboscis. More specifically, the visible part of the proboscis is the labium, which forms the sheath enclosing the rest of the mouthparts. When the mosquito first lands on a potential host, its mouthparts are enclosed entirely in this sheath, and it will touch the tip of the labium to the skin in various places. Sometimes, it will begin to bite almost straight away, while other times, it will prod around, apparently looking for a suitable place. Occasionally, it will wander for a considerable time, and eventually fly away without biting. Presumably, this probing is a search for a place with easily accessible blood vessels, but the exact mechanism is not known. It is known that there are two taste receptors at the tip of the labium which may well play a role.[55]
The female mosquito does not insert its labium into the skin; it bends back into a bow when the mosquito begins to bite. The tip of the labium remains in contact with the skin of the victim, acting as a guide for the other mouthparts. In total, there are six mouthparts besides the labium: two mandibles, two maxillae, the hypopharynx, and the labrum.
The mandibles and the maxillae are used for piercing the skin. The mandibles are pointed, while the maxillae end in flat, toothed "blades". To force these into the skin, the mosquito moves its head backwards and forwards. On one movement, the maxillae are moved as far forward as possible. On the opposite movement, the mandibles are pushed deeper into the skin by levering against the maxillae. The maxillae do not slip back because the toothed blades grip the skin.
The hypopharynx and the labrum are both hollow. Saliva with anticoagulant is pumped down the hypopharynx to prevent clotting, and blood is drawn up the labrum.
To understand the mosquito mouthparts, it is helpful to draw a comparison with an insect that chews food, such as a dragonfly. A dragonfly has two mandibles, which are used for chewing, and two maxillae, which are used to hold the food in place as it is chewed. The labium forms the floor of the dragonfly's mouth, the labrum forms the top, while the hypopharynx is inside the mouth and is used in swallowing. Conceptually, then, the mosquito's proboscis is an adaptation of the mouthparts that occur in other insects. The labium still lies beneath the other mouthparts, but also enfolds them, and it has been extended into a proboscis. The maxillae still "grip" the "food" while the mandibles "bite" it. The top of the mouth, the labrum, has developed into a channeled blade the length of the proboscis, with a cross-section like an inverted "U". Finally, the hypopharynx has extended into a tube that can deliver saliva at the end of the proboscis. Its upper surface is somewhat flattened so, when the lower part of the hypopharynx is pressed against it, the labrum forms a closed tube for conveying blood from the victim.[56]
Saliva
For the mosquito to obtain a blood meal, it must circumvent the vertebrate's physiological responses. The mosquito, as with all blood-feeding arthropods, has mechanisms to effectively block the hemostasis system with their saliva, which contains a mixture of secreted proteins. Mosquito saliva acts to reduce vascular constriction, blood clotting, platelet aggregation, angiogenesis and immunity, and creates inflammation.[57] Universally, hematophagous arthropod saliva contains at least one anti-clotting, one anti-platelet, and one vasodilatory substance. Mosquito saliva also contains enzymes that aid in sugar feeding,[58] and antimicrobial agents to control bacterial growth in the sugar meal.[59] The composition of mosquito saliva is relatively simple, as it usually contains fewer than 20 dominant proteins.[60] As of the early 2000s, scientists still were unable to ascribe functions to more than half of the molecules found in arthropod saliva.[60] One promising application of components of mosquito saliva is the development of anti-clotting drugs, such as clotting inhibitors and capillary dilators, that could be useful for cardiovascular disease.
It is now well recognized that feeding ticks, sandflies, and, more recently, mosquitoes, have an ability to modulate the immune response of the animals (hosts) on which they feed.[57] The presence of this activity in vector saliva is a reflection of the inherent overlapping and interconnected nature of the host hemostatic and inflammatory/immunological responses and the intrinsic need to prevent these host defenses from disrupting successful feeding. The mechanism for mosquito saliva-induced alteration of the host immune response is unclear, but the data have become increasingly convincing that such an effect occurs. Early work described a factor in saliva that directly suppresses TNF-α release, but not antigen-induced histamine secretion, from activated mast cells.[61] Experiments by Cross et al. (1994) demonstrated that the inclusion of Ae. aegypti mosquito saliva into naïve cultures led to a suppression of interleukin (IL)-2 and IFN-γ production, while the cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 are unaffected.[62] Cellular proliferation in response to IL-2 is clearly reduced by prior treatment of cells with mosquito salivary gland extract.[62] Correspondingly, activated splenocytes isolated from mice fed upon by either Ae. aegypti or Cx. pipiens mosquitoes produce markedly higher levels of IL-4 and IL-10 concurrent with suppressed IFN-γ production.[63] Unexpectedly, this shift in cytokine expression is observed in splenocytes up to 10 days after mosquito exposure, suggesting natural feeding of mosquitoes can have a profound, enduring, and systemic effect on the immune response.[63]
T cell populations are decidedly susceptible to the suppressive effect of mosquito saliva, showing increased mortality and decreased division rates.[64] Parallel work by Wasserman et al. (2004) demonstrated that T and B cell proliferation was inhibited in a dose dependent manner with concentrations as low as 1/7 of the saliva in a single mosquito.[65] Depinay et al. (2005) observed a suppression of antibody-specific T cell responses mediated by mosquito saliva and dependent on mast cells and IL-10 expression.[66]
A 2006 study suggests mosquito saliva can also decrease expression of interferon−α/β during early mosquito-borne virus infection.[67] The contribution of type I interferons (IFN) in recovery from infection with viruses has been demonstrated in vivo by the therapeutic and prophylactic effects of administration of IFN inducers or IFN itself,[68] and different research suggests mosquito saliva exacerbates West Nile virus infection,[69] as well as other mosquito-transmitted viruses.[70]
Studies in humanized mice bearing a reconstituted human immune system have suggested potential impact of mosquito saliva in humans. Work published in 2018 from the Baylor College of Medicine using such humanized mice came to several conclusions, among them being that mosquito saliva led to an increase in natural killer T cells in peripheral blood; to an overall decrease in ex vivo cytokine production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs); changes to proportions of subsets of PBMCs; changes in the prevalence of T cell subtypes across organs; and changes to circulating levels of cytokines.[71]
Egg development and blood digestion
Female mosquitoes use two very different food sources. They need sugar for energy, which is taken from sources such as nectar, and they need blood as a source of protein for egg development. Because biting is risky and suitable hosts may be difficult to find, mosquitoes take as much blood as possible when they have the opportunity. Digesting large volumes of blood takes time, requiring the use of energy from sugars during the feeding process. To avoid this problem, mosquitoes possess a digestive system which can store both food types, giving access to both as needed. When the mosquito drinks a sugar solution, it is directed to a crop. The crop can release sugar into the stomach as it is required. At the same time, the stomach never becomes full of sugar solution, which would prevent the mosquito taking a blood meal. Blood is directed straight into the mosquito's stomach. In species that feed on mammalian or avian blood, hosts whose blood pressure is high, the mosquito feeds selectively from active blood vessels, where the pressure assists in filling the gut rapidly.
Upon completion of feeding, the mosquito will withdraw her proboscis, and as the gut fills up, the stomach lining secretes a peritrophic membrane that surrounds the blood. This membrane keeps the blood separate from anything else in the stomach. However, like certain other insects that survive on dilute, purely liquid diets, notably many of the Hemiptera, many adult mosquitoes must excrete unwanted aqueous fractions even as they feed. (See the photograph of a feeding Anopheles stephensi: Note that the excreted droplet patently is not whole blood, being far more dilute). As long as they are not disturbed, this permits mosquitoes to continue feeding until they have accumulated a full meal of nutrient solids. As a result, a mosquito replete with blood can continue to absorb sugar, even as the blood meal is slowly digested over a period of several days.[55][72] Once blood is in the stomach, the midgut of the female synthesizes proteolytic enzymes that hydrolyze the blood proteins into free amino acids. These are used as building blocks for the synthesis of egg yolk proteins.
In the mosquito Anopheles stephensi, trypsin activity is restricted entirely to the posterior midgut lumen. No trypsin activity occurs before the blood meal, but activity increases continuously up to 30 hours after feeding, and subsequently returns to baseline levels by 60 hours. Aminopeptidase is active in the anterior and posterior midgut regions before and after feeding. In the whole midgut, activity rises from a baseline of approximately three enzyme units (EU) per midgut to a maximum of 12 EU at 30 hours after the blood meal, subsequently falling to baseline levels by 60 hours. A similar cycle of activity occurs in the posterior midgut and posterior midgut lumen, whereas aminopeptidase in the posterior midgut epithelium decreases in activity during digestion. Aminopeptidase in the anterior midgut is maintained at a constant, low level, showing no significant variation with time after feeding. Alpha-glucosidase is active in anterior and posterior midguts before and at all times after feeding. In whole midgut homogenates, alpha-glucosidase activity increases slowly up to 18 hours after the blood meal, then rises rapidly to a maximum at 30 hours after the blood meal, whereas the subsequent decline in activity is less predictable. All posterior midgut activity is restricted to the posterior midgut lumen. Depending on the time after feeding, greater than 25% of the total midgut activity of alpha-glucosidase is located in the anterior midgut. After blood meal ingestion, proteases are active only in the posterior midgut. Trypsin is the major primary hydrolytic protease and is secreted into the posterior midgut lumen without activation in the posterior midgut epithelium. Aminopeptidase activity is also luminal in the posterior midgut, but cellular aminopeptidases are required for peptide processing in both anterior and posterior midguts. Alpha-glucosidase activity is elevated in the posterior midgut after feeding in response to the blood meal, whereas activity in the anterior midgut is consistent with a nectar-processing role for this midgut region.[73]
Ecology

Distribution
Mosquitoes are cosmopolitan (world-wide): they are in every land region except Antarctica[55] and a few islands with polar or subpolar climates. Iceland is such an island, being essentially free of mosquitoes.[74]
The absence of mosquitoes from Iceland and similar regions is probably because of quirks of their climate, which differs in some respects from mainland regions. At the start of the uninterrupted continental winter of Greenland and the northern regions of Eurasia and America, the pupa enters diapause under the ice that covers sufficiently deep water. The imago ecloses only after the ice breaks in late spring. In Iceland however, the weather is less predictable. In mid-winter it frequently warms up suddenly, causing the ice to break, but then to freeze again after a few days. By that time the mosquitoes will have emerged from their pupae, but the new freeze sets in before they can complete their life cycle. Any anautogenous adult mosquito would need a host to supply a blood meal before it could lay viable eggs; it would need time to mate, mature the eggs and oviposit in suitable wetlands. These requirements would not be realistic in Iceland and in fact the absence of mosquitoes from such subpolar islands is in line with the islands' low biodiversity; Iceland has fewer than 1,500 described species of insects, many of them probably accidentally introduced by human agency. In Iceland most ectoparasitic insects live in sheltered conditions or actually on mammals; examples include lice, fleas and bedbugs, in whose living conditions freezing is no concern, and most of which were introduced inadvertently by humans.[74]
Some other aquatic Diptera, such as Simuliidae, do survive in Iceland, but their habits and adaptations differ from those of mosquitoes; Simuliidae for example, though they, like mosquitoes, are bloodsuckers, generally inhabit stones under running water that does not readily freeze and which is totally unsuited to mosquitoes; mosquitoes are generally not adapted to running water.[75][76]
Eggs of species of mosquitoes from the temperate zones are more tolerant of cold than the eggs of species indigenous to warmer regions.[77][78] Many even tolerate subzero temperatures. In addition, adults of some species can survive the winter by taking shelter in suitable microhabitats such as buildings or hollow trees.[79]
Activity
In warm and humid tropical regions, some mosquito species are active for the entire year, but in temperate and cold regions they hibernate or enter diapause. Arctic or subarctic mosquitoes, like some other arctic midges in families such as Simuliidae and Ceratopogonidae may be active for only a few weeks annually as melt-water pools form on the permafrost. During that time, though, they emerge in huge numbers in some regions and may take up to 300 ml of blood per day from each animal in a caribou herd.[80]
Means of dispersal
Worldwide introduction of various mosquito species over large distances into regions where they are not indigenous has occurred through human agencies, primarily on sea routes, in which the eggs, larvae, and pupae inhabiting water-filled used tires and cut flowers are transported. However, apart from sea transport, mosquitoes have been effectively carried by personal vehicles, delivery trucks, trains, and aircraft. Man-made areas such as storm water retention basins, or storm drains also provide sprawling sanctuaries. Sufficient quarantine measures have proven difficult to implement. In addition, outdoor pool areas make a perfect place for them to grow.
Climate and global distribution
Seasonality
In order for a mosquito to transmit a disease to the host there must be favorable conditions, referred to as transmission seasonality. [81] Seasonal factors that impact the prevalence of mosquitos and mosquito-borne diseases are primarily humidity, temperature, and precipitation. A positive correlation between malaria outbreaks and these climatic variables has been demonstrated in China;[82] and El Niño has been shown to impact the location and number of outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases observed in East Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and India.[83] Climate change impacts each of these seasonal factors and in turn impacts the dispersal of mosquitos.
Past and future patterns
Climatology and the study of mosquito-borne disease have been developed only over the past 100 years; however historical records of weather patterns and distinct symptoms associated with mosquito-borne diseases can be utilized to trace the prevalence of these diseases in relation to the climate over longer time periods.[81] Further, statistical models are being created to predict the impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases using these past records, and these models can be utilized in the field of public health in order to create interventions to reduce the impact of these predicted outcomes.
Two types of models are used to predict mosquito-borne disease spread in relation to climate: correlative models and mechanistic models. Correlative models focus primarily on vector distribution, and generally function in 3 steps. First, data is collected regarding geographical location of a target mosquito species. Next, a multivariate regression model establishes the conditions under which the target species can survive. Finally, the model determines the likelihood of the mosquito species to become established in a new location based on similar living conditions. The model can further predict future distributions based on environmental emissions data. Mechanistic models tend to be broader and include the pathogens and hosts in the analysis. These models have been used to recreate past outbreaks as well as predict the potential risk of a vector-borne disease based on an areas forecasted climate. [84]
Mosquito-borne diseases are currently most prevalent in East Africa, Latin America,  Southeast Asia, and India; however, emergence of vector-borne diseases in Europe have recently been observed. A weighted risk analysis demonstrated associations to climate for 49% of infectious diseases in Europe including all transmission routes. One statistical model predicts by 2030, the climate of southern Great Britain will be climatically-suitable for malaria transmission Plasmodium vivax malaria for 2 months of the year. By 2080 it is predicted that the same will be true for southern Scotland.[85]
Vectors of disease

Mosquitoes can act as vectors for many disease-causing viruses and parasites. Infected mosquitoes carry these organisms from person to person without exhibiting symptoms themselves. Mosquito-borne diseases include:
Viral diseases, such as yellow fever, dengue fever, and chikungunya, transmitted mostly by Aedes aegypti. Dengue fever is the most common cause of fever in travelers returning from the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and South Central Asia. This disease is spread through the bites of infected mosquitoes and cannot be spread person to person. Severe dengue can be fatal, but with good treatment, fewer than 1% of patients die from dengue.[86] Work published in 2012 from Baylor College of Medicine suggested that for some diseases, such as dengue fever, which can be transmitted via mosquitoes and by other means, the severity of the mosquito-transmitted disease could be greater.[87]
The parasitic diseases collectively called malaria, caused by various species of Plasmodium, carried by female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles
Lymphatic filariasis (the main cause of elephantiasis) which can be spread by a wide variety of mosquito species[88]
West Nile virus is a concern in the United States, but there are no reliable statistics on worldwide cases.
Eastern equine encephalitis virus is a concern in the eastern United States.
Tularemia, a bacterial disease caused by Francisella tularensis, is variously transmitted, including by biting flies. Culex and Culiseta are vectors of tularemia, as well as arbovirus infections such as West Nile virus.[89]
Zika, recently notorious, though rarely deadly. It causes fever, joint pain, rashes and conjunctivitis. The most serious consequence appears when the infected person is a pregnant woman, since during pregnancy this virus can originate a birth defect called microcephaly.
Potential transmission of HIV was originally a public health concern, but practical considerations and detailed studies of epidemiological patterns suggest that any transmission of the HIV virus by mosquitoes is at worst extremely unlikely.[90]
Various species of mosquitoes are estimated to transmit various types of disease to more than 700 million people annually in Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico, Russia, and much of Asia, with millions of resultant deaths. At least two million people annually die of these diseases, and the morbidity rates are many times higher still.
Methods used to prevent the spread of disease, or to protect individuals in areas where disease is endemic, include:
Vector control aimed at mosquito control or eradication
Disease prevention, using prophylactic drugs and developing vaccines
Prevention of mosquito bites, with insecticides, nets, and repellents
Since most such diseases are carried by "elderly" female mosquitoes, some scientists have suggested focusing on these to avoid the evolution of resistance.[91]
Control

Many measures have been tried for mosquito control, including the elimination of breeding places, exclusion via window screens and mosquito nets, biological control with parasites such as fungi[92][93] and nematodes,[94] or predators such as fish,[95][96][97] copepods,[98] dragonfly nymphs and adults, and some species of lizard and gecko.[99] Another approach is to introduce large numbers of sterile males.[100] Genetic methods including cytoplasmic incompatibility, chromosomal translocations, sex distortion and gene replacement have been explored. They are cheaper and not subject to vector resistance.[101]
According to an article in Nature discussing the idea of totally eradicating mosquitoes, "Ultimately, there seem to be few things that mosquitoes do that other organisms can’t do just as well — except perhaps for one. They are lethally efficient at sucking blood from one individual and mainlining it into another, providing an ideal route for the spread of pathogenic microbes.”[80] The eradication of mosquitoes may now be possible using gene drives.[102][103]
Repellents

Insect repellents are applied on skin and give short-term protection against mosquito bites. The chemical DEET repels some mosquitoes and other insects.[104] Some CDC-recommended repellents are picaridin, eucalyptus oil (PMD) and ethyl butylacetylaminopropionate (IR3535).[105] Others are indalone, dimethyl phthalate, dimethyl carbate, and ethyl hexanediol.
There are also electronic insect repellent devices which produce ultrasounds that were developed to keep away insects (and mosquitoes). However, no scientific research based on the EPA's as well as the many universities' studies has ever provided evidence that these devices prevent a human from being bitten by a mosquito.[106][107]
Bites

Mosquito bites lead to a variety of mild, serious, and, rarely, life-threatening allergic reactions. These include ordinary wheal and flare reactions and mosquito bite allergies (MBA). The MBA, also termed hypersensitivity to mosquito bites (HMB), are excessive reactions to mosquito bites that are not caused by any toxin or pathogen in the saliva injected by a mosquito at the time it takes its blood-meal. Rather, they are allergic hypersensitivity reactions caused by the non-toxic allergenic proteins contained in the mosquito's saliva.[108] Studies have shown or suggest that numerous species of mosquitoes can trigger ordinary reactions as well as MBA. These include Aedes aegypti, Aedes vexans, Aedes albopictus, Anopheles sinensis, Culex pipiens,[109] Aedes communis, Anopheles stephensi,[110] Culex quinquefasciatus, Ochlerotatus triseriatus,[111] and Culex tritaeniorhynchus.[112] Furthermore, there is considerable cross-reactivity between the salivary proteins of mosquitoes in the same family and, to a lesser extent, different families. It is therefore assumed that these allergic responses may be caused by virtually any mosquito species (or other biting insect).[113]
The mosquito bite allergies are informally classified as 1) the Skeeter syndrome, i.e. severe local skin reactions sometimes associated with low-grade fever; 2) systemic reactions that range from high-grade fever, lymphadenopathy, abdominal pain, and/or diarrhea to, very rarely, life-threatening symptoms of anaphylaxis; and 3) severe and often systmeic reactions occurring in individuals that have an Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoproliferative disease, Epstein-Barr virus-negative lymphoid malignancy,[114] or another predisposing condition such as Eosinophilic cellulitis or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.[109]
Mechanism
Visible, irritating bites are due to an immune response from the binding of IgG and IgE antibodies to antigens in the mosquito's saliva. Some of the sensitizing antigens are common to all mosquito species, whereas others are specific to certain species. There are both immediate hypersensitivity reactions (types I and III) and delayed hypersensitivity reactions (type IV) to mosquito bites.[115] Both reactions result in itching, redness and swelling. Immediate reactions develop within a few minutes of the bite and last for a few hours. Delayed reactions take around a day to develop, and last for up to a week.
Treatment
Several anti-itch medications are commercially available, including those taken orally, such as diphenhydramine, or topically applied antihistamines and, for more severe cases, corticosteroids, such as hydrocortisone and triamcinolone. A common topical remedy in camping gear is aqueous ammonia.
Both topical heat[116] and cool[117] may be useful to treat mosquito bites.
In human culture
Greek mythology
Ancient Greek beast fables including "The Elephant and the Mosquito" and "The Bull and the Mosquito", with the general moral that the large beast does not even notice the small one, derive ultimately from Mesopotamia.[118]
Origin myths

The peoples of Siberia have origin myths surrounding the mosquito - one Ostiak myth tells of a man eating giant, Punegusse, who is killed by a hero but will not stay dead, the hero eventually burns the giant, but the ashes of the fire become mosquitos that continue to plague mankind.
Other myths from the Yakuts, Goldes (Nanai people), and Samoyed have the insect arising from the ashes or fragments of some giant creature or demon. Similar tales are found in North American Indian myth, with the mosquito arising from the ashes of a man-eater - suggesting a common origin. The Tatars of the Altai had a similar myth, though to be of Indian origin, involving the fragments of the dead giant Andalma-Muus, becoming mosquitos and other insects.[119]
Modern era
Winsor McCay's 1912 film How a Mosquito Operates was one of the earliest works of animation, far ahead of its time in technical quality. It depicts a giant mosquito tormenting a sleeping man.[120] The de Havilland Mosquito was a high-speed aircraft manufactured between 1940 and 1950, and used in many roles.[121]

Further reading

 at Curlie

 chapter in United States Environmental Protection Agency National Public Health Pesticide Applicator Training Manual
A film clip  is available at the Internet Archive

 Wikibooks

How many species of mosquito are found in North America?


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Anarchists have employed certain symbols for their cause, including most prominently the circle-A (Ⓐ) and the black flag (⚑),[1] although anarchists have historically largely denied the importance of symbols to political movement.[2] Since the revival of anarchism around the start of the 21st century and concurrent with the rise of the anti-globalization movement, anarchist cultural symbols are widely present.[3]
Red flag

The red flag was one of first anarchist symbols and it was widely used in late 19th century by anarchists worldwide.[4] Peter Kropotkin preferred the use of the red flag.[5]

The red banner, which has always stood for liberty, frightens the executioners because it is so red with our blood. [...] Those red and black banners wave over us mourning our dead and wave over our hopes for the dawn that is breaking.[6][7]
—Louise Michel

Use of the red flag by anarchists disappeared after the October Revolution, when red flags started to be associated only with communist parties and bureaucratic, reformist and authoritarian social democracy.[4]
Black flag

The black flag and the color black in general have been associated with anarchism since the 1880s. Many anarchist collectives contain the word "black" in their names. There have been a number of anarchist periodicals entitled Black Flag.[8]
The uniform blackness of the flag is in stark contrast to the colorful flags typical of most nation states. Additionally, as a white flag has been used to request parley or to surrender, the black flag symbolizes defiance and opposition to surrender.
Historical origins
The black flag represents the absence of a flag and thus stands in opposition to the very notion of nation states. In that light, the flag can be seen as a rejection of the concept of representation, or the idea that any person or institution can adequately represent a group of individuals. Modern anarchism has a shared ancestry with—amongst other ideologies—socialism, a movement strongly associated with the red flag. As anarchism became more and more distinct from socialism in the 1880s, it adopted the black flag in an attempt to differentiate itself.[2] However, some anarchists at the time such as Peter Kropotkin preferred to continue using the red flag rather than adopt the black.[5]
Subsequent use
The black flag first became associated with anarchism in the 1880s. The French anarchist paper, Le Drapeau Noir (The Black Flag), which existed until 1882, is one of the first published references to use black as an anarchist color. Black International was the name of a London anarchist group founded in July 1881. Louise Michel, participant in the Paris Commune in 1871, flew the black flag during demonstration of the unemployed in Paris in March 1883. An open-air meeting of the unemployed was broken up by the police and around 500 demonstrators, with Michel at the front carrying a black flag and shouting "Bread, work, or lead!" marched off towards the boulevard Saint-Germain. The crowd pillaged three baker's shops before the police attacked. Michel was arrested and sentenced to six years solitary confinement. Public pressure soon forced the granting of an amnesty.[9] According to Michel, the "black flag is the flag of strikes and the flag of those who are hungry".[10]
The black flag soon made its way to the United States. The black flag was displayed in Chicago at an anarchist demonstration in November 1884.[11] According to the English language newspaper of the Chicago anarchists, it was "the fearful symbol of hunger, misery and death".[12]
Bisected flag

The colors black and red have been used by anarchists since at least the late 1800s when they were used on cockades by Italian anarchists in the 1864 Bologna insurrection and in 1877 when anarchists entered the Italian town Letino carrying red and black flags to promote the First International.[2] Diagonally divided red and black flags were popularized during the Spanish Civil War by the anarcho-syndicalist labor union CNT[2] and are used to this day by anarchist organizations. Similar flags yet with different colors are commonly used to represent specific anarchist ideologies such as black and purple for anarcha-feminism, black and green for green anarchism and black and orange for mutualism.[13]
Circle-A

The circle-A is almost certainly the best-known present-day symbol for anarchy. It is a monogram that consists of the capital letter "A" surrounded by the capital letter "O". The letter "A" is derived from the first letter of "anarchy" or "anarchism" in most European languages and is the same in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. The "O" stands for order and together they stand for "society seeks order in anarchy" (French: la société cherche l'ordre dans l'anarchie), a phrase written by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his 1840 book What Is Property?.[14][15]
The circle-A long predates the anarcho-punk movement, which was part of the punk rock movement of the late 1970s. However, the punk movement helped spread the circle-A symbol more widely and helped raise awareness of it among non-anarchists. This process began with the use of anarchist imagery when members of the band Crass became aware of the symbol while traveling through France.[16]
See also

Anarchism and the arts
Anarchist Black Cross
Anarchist schools of thought
Black bloc
Black cat §Anarcho-syndicalism
Black rose (symbolism)
Communist symbolism
No gods, no masters
Political colour
Property is theft!
Spontaneous order §Anarchism

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What is the earliest known use of the anarchy symbol?