Anopheles Mosquitoes

Anopheles Mosquito Facts

• Labeled as: The malaria mosquito
• Appearance: When resting or feeding, they hold the body at a steep angle with the tail end tilted up and away from the surface. Most other mosquitoes keep the body roughly level with whatever they are sitting on.
• Color: Dark brown to blackish, covered in brown and black scales

Anopheles Mosquitoes and Malaria History

Anopheles mosquitoes carry the Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria, a disease that still kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mostly in the tropics and above all in sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists have described several hundred Anopheles species. Only a portion of them spread malaria to people, and some can also carry the worm behind heartworm disease in dogs.

How to Recognize Anopheles in Florida

Anopheles are similar in size to the other mosquitoes in a Florida yard, and usually dark brown to blackish. Two features help separate them from the common Culex and Aedes mosquitoes:

• Long palps in both sexes. The pair of sensory palps beside the beak is about as long as the beak itself, so a female’s head looks like it has three long prongs. Female Culex and Aedes have short palps.
• Spotted wings. Many species have dark patches of scales on the wings. The common malaria mosquito, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, is named for the four dark spots on each wing.

Florida has several native Anopheles species. Two of the most widespread are Anopheles quadrimaculatus and Anopheles crucians, found in wet, low-lying areas across the state. Females lay eggs one at a time on the water surface, and each egg has small floats on its sides. The larvae develop in fresh, fairly clean water with vegetation, such as marshes, swamp edges, ponds and slow ditches.

Adult females feed on the blood of people and other mammals, including livestock, while males feed only on plant nectar and other sugars. Activity peaks from dusk to dawn. The season follows the rains, roughly June through October, and runs longer in South Florida. These mosquitoes are common in rural and wetland areas, though in cities they are often less noticed than daytime biters. Health risks are covered on our Anopheles bites page.