Australian elephant mosquito

Australian elephant mosquito
Adult
Larva
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Culicidae
Genus: Toxorhynchites
Species:
T. speciosus
Binomial name
Toxorhynchites speciosus
(Skuse, 1889)

The Australian elephant mosquito (Toxorhynchites speciosus) is a species of mosquito in the genus Toxorhynchites, commonly known as elephant mosquitoes. Native to Australia, this species is distinguished by its large size and the predatory behaviour of its larvae, which feed on the larvae of other mosquito species. Unlike most mosquitoes, adults of T. speciosus do not feed on blood but instead consume nectar and plant juices, rendering them harmless to humans. It is the largest mosquito in the world.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.