mosquito

{plural – ‘mosquitoes’ or ‘mosquitos’}

a kind of insect – related to the common house fly – with wings – blood-sucking – a slender brown body covered in a hard outer called ‘exoskeleton’, with three parts: head, thorax and abdomen, two antennae and two large compound eyes, a long straw-like (proboscis) mouth organ, a pair of wings with very small scales (only two wings) and 3 pairs of long delicate legs (6 legs), elongated abdomen, hunched thorax (some species have bands on the thorax, and some have spots of different colours on the legs and/or wings);

size: ¼ –½ of an inch long, and weight: 2-3 mg (milligrams); feeds on (eats) nectar and juices of plants (*females need the blood of other animals, including humans, to lay eggs); lives for 2-3 weeks (males live less period of time than females, and the entire life cycle takes a month); about 2,700 species found worldwide

male ~~ male

female ~~ female

baby ~~ nymph; ‘wriggler’ (larva stage) & ‘tumbler’ (pupa stage)

group ~~ swarm; scourge

voice (call) ~~ {no vocal sound} buzz (sound made by the wings while flying)

Special Features (?):

The name of the insect is ‘mosquito’ meaning “little fly”, but the insect itself is a terrible monster, mostly active at night!

Mosquitoes are one of the most harmful insects.  In fact, we can say that they are the most harmful insects!

It is estimated that about 600 million people die each year from ‘diseases carried by mosquitoes’!

Luckily for animals, including humans, only a few of the 2, 700 species bite and suck blood!!

The adult mosquitoes usually feed on nectar of the flowers and the juices (sap) of plants, but the female mosquitoes of some species need blood of other animals and birds to produce eggs, and so, with the help of the long sharp straw-like organ, called proboscis, they bite (pierce) and suck up the blood!

Just sucking up the blood does not cause any harm, except that the animal loses some blood, but in order to make the blood flow freely, without getting clotted, the female sends in its saliva which has the chemical called ‘anti-coagulant’ that makes its bite painless and the blood flow freely.  In that saliva there may be some disease causing bacteria which the insect has probably got from an already infected animal or person whose blood it has sucked up earlier! Thus, the disease is transmitted (= passed on from one to another) from one animal to another!!

The most common diseases that are spread by mosquito are: malaria, encephalitis, filaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, dog heartworm, West Nile virus.

People take numerous precautions in order to control the spread of mosquito – some are successful, but most are unsuccessful.  In order to find a more effective and less harmful repellent, scientists and ordinary people try using different methods, including using the smoke of the burnt dried elephant dung (shit)!!

The experts’ advice is: “The best way to keep the mosquito numbers under control is to keep the surroundings dry”, because the female mosquito lays its eggs in stagnant or slow flowing water!

Figures of Speech:

1.

mosquito (noun)  =

(a)  an ultrasonic teenage deterrent (a kind of device that gives out a kind of annoying sound that only the young people between the ages of 13 and 25 can hear; this sound gets so annoying for them that the young people are forced to leave a place or avoid going to a place where this device is working)

(b)  (also ‘mosquito ringtones’) the cell-phone ringtone which only the young people can hear – youngster between 13 and 25 years of age only can hear

2.

… able to kick the eye out of a mosquito [said of an extremely competent, capable, skilful …]

3.

ribbed up like a mosquito [said of a barrel-chested horse]

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