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| Elephant Mosquitoes, The Killer Of The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Causes Dengue Fever |
Elephant Mosquitoes, The Killer Of The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Causes Dengue Fever. The elephant mosquito is the name for the type of mosquito that gets this name because of its large size for the mosquito.
At least 17 species of elephant mosquitoes have been identified and all belong to the genus Toxorhynchites.
Each species has a maximum size and a varied habitat. For example, the species Toxorhynchites brevipalpis, which is native to tropical Africa, has a wingspan of 2.5 centimeters.
The Toxorhynchites splendens species, on the other hand, were slightly smaller than Toxorhynchites brevipalpis. Its body length only reaches 0.7 centimeters with a maximum wingspan of 1.2 centimeters.
Its habitat is spread from the Sri Lanka region to the Fiji Islands in the Pacific. Toxorhynchites rutilus species are similar in size to Toxorhynchites splendens.
The difference is that if Toxorhynchites splendens has a wild habitat in tropical Asia and Oceania, then Toxorhynchites rutilus has its natural habitat in the eastern region of the United States with a climate of four seasons.
Elephant Mosquitoes, The Killer Of The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Causes Dengue Fever
Elephant mosquitoes generally have a life cycle similar to other mosquito species. They undergo a complete metamorphosis which consists of the egg phase, larvae larvae, pupae, and adult mosquitoes.
Female mosquitoes lay eggs on the outside of the water. The places where female mosquitoes lay their eggs are calm waters, for example in puddles in tree basins and used car tires.
The eggs then hatch into larvae that are good at swimming by shaking their bodies. Elephant mosquito larvae cannot breathe underwater and must take in oxygen from the outside air at regular intervals using a breathing tube at the end of their tail.
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| Elephant Mosquitoes, The Killer Of The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Causes Dengue Fever |
Like large adult mosquitoes, elephant mosquito larvae also have a large size. The last instar or growth phase of the larva can grow up to two centimeters long.
The uniqueness of elephant mosquito larvae has not yet reached there. In general, larvae live from eating plankton and small particles in the water.
But elephant mosquito larvae actually live on eating small water insects and other mosquito larvae. An elephant mosquito larva can eat at least four hundred larvae before turning into a cocoon.
If the waters where they live are too narrow, it is not uncommon for elephant mosquito larvae to eat other elephant mosquito larvae which are smaller in size. When it reaches the 4th instar, the elephant mosquito larvae will turn into a cocoon.
Because elephant mosquito pupae are equipped with tails, elephant mosquito pupae can swim to deeper waters if they feel the vibrations around them.
The cocoons will then open to the surface of the water and give rise to adult mosquitoes. Both male and female mosquitoes never consume blood and only live on the nectar of flowers and honey dew.
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| Elephant Mosquitoes, The Killer Of The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Causes Dengue Fever |
Male mosquitoes have thicker hairy antennae to help them smell the pheromone substances released by female mosquitoes.
Female mosquitoes outside the genus Toxorhynchites need to suck the blood of other creatures to get enough protein to ripen their eggs.
However, this does not apply to elephant mosquitoes. This wonder may have something to do with the existence pattern of the elephant mosquito itself.
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Because the larvae have accumulated a large amount of food after eating the larvae of other aquatic insects, the adult female mosquito already has the protein reserves needed to ripen the eggs.
Used as a natural insecticide to eradicate disease-spreading mosquitoes
Because elephant mosquitoes never attack humans and these mosquito larvae have cannibalistic properties against other mosquito larvae, elephant mosquitoes have begun to be used as natural insecticides to eradicate disease-spreading mosquitoes in an area.
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| Elephant Mosquitoes, The Killer Of The Aedes Aegypti Mosquito That Causes Dengue Fever |
In several countries,
elephant mosquitoes have been released since 2011 to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito that causes dengue fever. The results were quite positive because areas in some countries that were initially affected by dengue fever were not affected again until several years later.
The use of elephant mosquitoes to eradicate disease-causing mosquitoes is not without obstacles. The number of larvae produced by elephant mosquitoes is still less than the number of larvae produced by disease-spreading mosquitoes.
As a result, elephant mosquitoes must be released in large numbers in the same area in order to maximize the mosquito population that spreads the disease.
This results in the high costs involved in breeding and distributing elephant mosquitoes, making them an effective natural mosquito repellent.
By: Ochie
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