What is your skill level? • Beginner • No training yet • Never identified mosquitoes • Just beginning to learn to identify mosquitoes • Intermediate • Identify local species easily • Use of taxonomic keys • Would easily recognize something “new” • Advanced • Can identify all species in the region • Teaches others to identify mosquitoes • Can figure out “new” species by using a taxonomic key Identification Skills assessment

Name the three major body parts of the adult female mosquito Adult Female Mosquito

Thorax

Head

Abdomen Mosquito Identification Skills assessment

True or false: Mosquitoes have scales on their wings Non-mosquito Mosquito Identification Skills assessment Which is male? Which is female? Extra – what species?

Culex nigripalpus

Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory Mosquito Identification Skills assessment •What mosquito is this? Mosquito Identification Skills assessment Mosquito Identification Skills assessment On which major body part of the adult female mosquito would you find the post-spiracular setae?

Classification of Mosquitoes

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Diptera Family: Culicidae Genus: Species: nigripalpus Family

•Culicidae •All mosquitoes are in this family •Only mosquitoes are in this family Genus (genera) - North America, North of Mexico • • • Anopheles • Orthopodomyia • • • Culex • Toxorhynchites • • Uranotaenia • Deinocerites • Wyeomyia How do we know we are looking at an adult mosquito?

• 3 major body parts • Head, thorax, and abdomen • 2 wings • Scales on the wings • 6 legs • Proboscis • Piercing-sucking How whole-body mosquito identification is done (excludes molecular testing)

•Use of taxonomic keys •Sight Identification Tools for Mosquito Identification Tools for Mosquito Identification

• Stereomicroscope aka Dissecting Scope • Magnification range: 4X – 50X • Gooseneck light - external Tools for Mosquito Identification

Tools for Mosquito Identification

• Taxonomic Keys • READ THE TITLE! Shows you the limitations • Sex • Geographic Region • Life Stage • Other • Assumes you know you have a mosquito • Based on ideal specimens (not trap catches) http://www.wrbu.org/keys_tut/keys_tut00.html 1

2 3

1st – 4th Instar

4

Culex nigripalpus

Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory Mosquito body parts and terminology BILATERAL SYMMETRY Scales and setae

• Setae = hair, hair tufts, bristles • Round in cross section • Scales = flat in cross section, widen from base to apex • Pale = shades of white • White to brownish white to grayish white • Dark = black or brown • Golden, yellow, and dingy yellow

Wing Veins

C = Costa Sc = Subcosta C = Cubital R = Radial M - Medial A - Anal

Abdomen blunt/rounded Abdomen pointed Aedes, Psorophora

Sight Identifications and sorting trap collections Characters for broad sorting

•Size •Legs – banded or no bands •Scaling patterns on the thorax •Proboscis – banded or no bands •Wings – “Salt and pepper”; patterned; plain Psorophora

Uranotaenia Aedes taeniorhynchus

Aedes sollicitans

Coquillettidia perturbans

Psorophora columbiae Mansonia dyari Orthopodomyia

Aedes

Aedes albopictus Aedes dorsalis Aedes vexans Anopheles quadrimaculatus Coquillettidia perturbans Culiseta melanura Culex pipiens/quinquefasciatus* *species complexes FIGURE 1. Distribution of the Culex pipiens complex and its sibling species based on maps of Dahl,35 Belkin,36 Mattingly and others,37 and available literature.12,38,39 Light gray Cx. pipiens; black Cx. quinquefasciatus; dark gray overlapping ranges of Cx. pipiens and Cx. quinquefasciatus; region marked by dotted line Cx. torrentium; region marked by solid line Cx. australicus; region marked by dashed line Cx. pipiens pallens; New Zealand marked by dotted and dashed line Cx. pervigilans. Culex tarsalis http://www.fcwp.org/pest%20pages/westnile01.html Psorophora columbiae Field ID of Adult Mosquitoes

• Mainly for preliminary data – confirm with microscope when possible • First – you must be able to distinguish mosquitoes from other • Some can be ID’d to Species, some to Genera only • 1 Family = Culicidae • 12 Genera Field ID of Adult Mosquitoes

• Learn key characters for species in your area • County-wide similar along east coast up to Georgia, down to Miami • Southeastern US – a few differences in AL, MS, GA, LA • Very different outside of Southeastern US Field ID of Adult Mosquitoes

• Helps to know seasonality • Learn this on the job – from your own experience and experiences of co-workers • Example • Cs. inornata – “winter” • Cx. nigripalpus – annual • Cx. restuans - spring Field ID of Adult Mosquitoes

• Know the larval habitats and flight ranges • Container mosquitoes don’t far from larval habitats • Saltmarsh mosquitoes have long distance flight ranges • Know the behavior • Day biters vs night biters • Resting habits (Anopheles) Best practices • Keep mosquitoes in the freezer or fridge as much as possible and only bringing them out to sort in small batches would be helpful as well. • Practice daily or as much as possible, including off-season • Don’t be afraid to touch the microscope and move the lights • Build a reference collection • Train new identifiers • Data recording – MOSQUITONET! • Know your local entomologists – for unknowns or send to me! Resources for mosquito identification keys and training Identification Keys

Global US Department of Defense Walter Reed http://www.wrbu.org/VecID_MQ.html Biosystematics Unit http://www.wrbu.org/aors/aors_Keys.html Identification Keys to Medically Important Species National Darsie, R.F., Jr., and R. A. Ward. 2005. Identification University Press of Florida and Geographical Distribution of the Mosquitoes of Amazon North America, North of Mexico. University Press of Other book sellers Florida. 398 pp

Regional Burkett-Cadena, N. D. 2013. Mosquitoes of the University of Alabama Press Southeast Southeastern United States. University Alabama Amazon Press. 208 pp. Regional Harrison, B. A., B. D. Byrd, S. B. Sither, and P. B. Whitt. North Carolina Mosquito and Vector Control Association Mid- 2016. The Mosquitoes of the Mid-Atlantic Region: https://www.ncmvca.org/ Atlantic An Identification Guide. Mosquito and Vector-borne Infectious Diseases Laboratory Publication 2016-1. Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC. 201 pp. Regional – Craker C. L. E. and F. H. Collins. 2014. The Free download from the Indiana Vector Control Association: Ohio River mosquitoes of the Ohio River Basin: Illinois, Indiana, http://www.ivca.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Mosquitoes-of-the- Basin Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia. 114 pp. Ohio-River-Basin-Manual.pdf State - AZ State - CO Rose, D. A., B. C. Kondratieff, and M. J. Weissman. Order from: 2017. of Western North American, 9. C. P. Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity, Department of Colorado Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). C. P. Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State Gillette Museum of Arthropod Diversity, Department University. Fort Collins, CO. 80523-1177 of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University. 104 pp. Terms for quick key

• Palps • Proboscis • Abdomen • Wings • Subcostal vein • Setae Maxillary palps and proboscis Maxillary palps much shorter than about the same length proboscis

Anopheles

Tip of abdomen is Tip of abdomen rounded or squared ends in a point

Base of subcostal wing vein Base of subcostal wing vein on Aedes does NOT have patch of underside of wing with patch of setae (hairs) on underside of setae (hairs) wing OR OR Wings extend beyond tip of Quick Guide to Genera of Wings extend just to tip of abdomen CONUS, limited to Aedes, abdomen Anopheles, Culiseta, and Culex

Based on Identification and Geographical Distribution of the Mosquitoes of North America, North of Mexico by Richard F. Culex Culiseta Darsie, Jr. and Ronald A. Ward (2005) Maxillary palps and proboscis about the Maxillary palps much shorter same length than proboscis

Anopheles

Tip of abdomen is Tip of abdomen ends in a rounded or squared point

Base of subcostal wing vein does NOT Base of subcostal wing vein on underside of have patch of setae (hairs) on underside wing with patch of setae (hairs) of wing Aedes OR OR Wings extend beyond tip of abdomen Wings extend just to tip of abdomen

Quick Guide to Genera of CONUS, limited to Aedes, Anopheles, Culiseta, and Culex

Based on Identification and Geographical Distribution of the Mosquitoes of North America, North of Mexico by Richard F. Culex Culiseta Darsie, Jr. and Ronald A. Ward (2005) From Darsie and Ward, 1981

For Quick Key:

Palps Proboscis Abdomen Wings Subcostal vein – see next page From Belkin, 1962 [email protected]