wpe1.jpg (9176 bytes) 

Plate and some information from Mosquitoes of North America by Stanley Carpenter and Walter LaCasse

Ochlerotatus sollicitans

medium-size

Proboscis:        dark-scaled, ringed with white near middle (wide band)

Palpi:                 short, dark with a few white scales at tips

Head:                 Occiput with a broad median patch of narrow golden-yellow scales

Thorax:        Integument of Scutum black; Scutum with narrow golden to golden-brown scales dorsally, becoming dark bronze-brown laterally; often a pair of narrow rather indefinitt, submedian lines of pale-yellow to golden-yellow scales extending nearly the full length of the scutum. Scutellum with light-golden scales. Pleura with dense, poorly defined patches of appressed grayish-white scales.

Abdomen:    1st tergite with a median patch of yellowish-white scales; other tergites dark, each white laterally, pale yellow basally and medially. Venter whitish to pale-yellow scaled, speckled with dark scales.

Legs:            Femora and Tibiae dark, liberally speckled with pale scales, posterior surface pale, knee spots white. Hind Tarsus with segment 1 ringed with white base and with a yellow ring at middle, segment 2 to 4 with broad white based rings, segment 5 entirely white. Front and middle tarsi similarly marked but with bands narrower on segment 1 to 3, absent on 4; segment 5 on front tarsus varies from entirely dark to  nearly all white; segment 5 of middle tarsus mostly white, blended with dark scales.

Wing:         length about 3.5 to 4.5 mm.  Mixed broad brown and white scales.

Bionomics:   Larvae occur mostly in salt marshes ...may be found also in brackish - water swamps. Larvae and adults can be found April - October. The adults are strong fliers ...flight range is 5 to 40 miles. They are  persistent biters and will attack anytime day or night. They rest in vegatation during daytime and will attack anyone invading their haunts, even in sunlight.

 

 

TABLE of CONTENTS