Culiseta melanura

Culiseta melanura has a wide distribution ranging from southern Quebec, Canada all the way to southern Florida, and spanning the United States from the eastern border of the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast. These mosquitoes have also been found in the Caribbean. (Horsfall, 1955; Mahmood and Crans, 1998a)

Culiseta melanura are found in a wide variety of places, from swampy wetlands to pools of water inside old tires. They typically reproduce in underground crypts and rotting trees. They are also fond of swampy acidic water with pH at or near 5.0. (Burbutis and Lake, 1956; Mahmood and Crans, 1998a; Mahmood and Crans, 1998b)

Culiseta melanura have white, elongate eggs that darken and harden over the hours following oviposition. Larvae are divided into three segments: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. The abdomen itself is divided into ten segments, the last three of which form the siphon used for breathing. The aquatic pupa has a fused head and thorax, this forming the cephalothorax. C. melanura as adults have a body design that is also separated into three regions. The head bears the antennae, eyes, palpi and proboscis.

Males and females are dimorphic. Their differences reside in their antennae and palpi. Males have longer proboscises and antennae covered with more hair than females. (Miller and Nasci, 1996)

The time it takes for the egg to hatch, larvae to mature, and the adult to eclose from the pupa, is very dependent upon the ambient temperature. Both larvae and pupae are aquatic, but pupae do not feed. They are found respiring at the water surface of their habitats. When the mosquito is ready to emerge from the pupa, the dorsal skin on the cephalothorax splits, allowing the adult to exit. (Burbutis and Lake, 1956; Mahmood and Crans, 1998a; Mahmood and Crans, 1998b; Service, 2000)

Culiseta melanura have a unique life cycle for a mosquito; the mosquito over winters as a larva as opposed to an adult. Eggs are laid singly onto the surface of water in crypts, which are stagnant pools of water. Eggs cannot survive without water, or they will dry out. Females can oviposit between 30 and 300 eggs at one time. The time it takes for the egg to hatch and undergo pupation is dependent upon the temperature of the environment. Adults disperse and reproduce within a 100 km radius of the site where they emerged. (Burbutis and Lake, 1956; Mahmood and Crans, 1998a; Mahmood and Crans, 1998b; Service, 2000)

Females lay eggs in a place suitable for larval development, after which there is no further parental involvement.

Adults live from several days to several months depending on numerous abiotic conditions.

Culiseta melanura is a solitary species. These mosquitoes do not travel in swarms although they may oviposite their eggs in the same crypt or water container. Females are intermittent parasites of birds. (Busvine, 1993)

Culiseta melanura adult males feed on the nectar from flowers, as the maxillae and mandibles are not developed for piercing skin, as are the mouthparts of females. The female C. melanura is an intermittent parasite of birds, finding a host long enough for one blood meal and then leaving. This species of mosquito is rarely attracted to mammals, and feeds almost exclusively on birds. Females locate hosts and use their proboscis to pierce the epidermis of the host in order to obtain a blood meal. After feeding is complete, the female will leave the host and locate a suitable place to deposit her eggs. Larvae live in the confines of hidden crypts (small pools of acidic, stagnant water) and typically filter feed on decaying plant matter. (Burgess, 1990; Service, 2000)

Mosquito larvae are an important food source for a variety of aquatic organisms including fish and other insect larvae. Fish, insects, spiders, bats, frogs, and birds also prey upon the adults. (Burbutis and Lake, 1956; Mahmood and Crans, 1998b)

There is no obvious economic benefit derived from this species.

Culiseta melanura is an important vector of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE). The reservoir for this virus is wild birds, the most important of which is the ringed pheasant within the United States. Culiseta melanura is the primary enzootic vector of EEE and birds serve as amplification hosts. Other mosquitoes serve in the transmission of EEE to humans, but without C. melanura, human infection would be largely decreased (Busvine, 1993; Mahmood and Crans, 1998a; Mahmood and Crans, 1998b)

This species is in no danger of extinction.