Unidentified mosquito with distended abdomen

[Bruce Williams]

Stony Stratford, Bucks.

I'm guessing her abdomen is distended like this because she has just fed- am I right?

Help with identification of species appreciated as always.



Bruce

[squishy]

sorry- no idea on the species front, but could it be carrying eggs?

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for your suggestion squishy.

You know I did wonder about the possibility of it being due to eggs myself - then I came across this website
with line drawings that suggested it could be due to blood.

However, if it was blood the I would have expected the exposed part of the abdomen to be dark red (just my expectation - no knowledge here )

Bruce

[Bruce Williams]

Thought some of you might find these pics of a gravid mosquito from the BugGuide website interesting:

Mosquito - Gravid? - Aedes vexans - BugGuide.Net

Bruce

[squishy]

that photo looks very similar to yours- the sort of split abdomen.
look at this this picture and this one, that is what they look like when they have just fed.

so are we thinking gravid?

[squishy]

looks very similar to this species Armigeres subalbatus

possible match?

[Dogghound]

I think this is Culiseta annulata, a common but nasty one it does feed on humans.

[squishy]

do you think its gravid dogghound?

[Dogghound]

Its certainally not recently fed as it would be bright red so it could explain the swelling, also you can almost make out eggs inside it.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for the links squishy. From those pics it seems clear that the abdomen would be dark red if it was distended due to feeding on blood. So it would appear that (as you originally suggested) it is a more likely that the mosquito is gravid. Edit: just noticed that Dan also thinks gravid .

Dan from checking out several images it's clear that you are spot-on with the id Culiseta annulata.

Bruce