CLOSED: Is this a 'common' mosquito ?

I have put all the images in separate threads so it makes it more easy to close when individual bugs are identified.
Thanks.

I think this is in the genus Culex, the dreaded House mosquito. They're everywhere but Antarctica

Many thanks!

Awesome photo!

bonitin,
I am sure that your mosquito is not in the genus Culex. Its mouthparts and feathery antennae do not match that genus.
I am not able to find much information about mosquitoes in your area, but looking through the American species, it looks as if it might be in the genus Culiseta. This picture of an American Culiseta does have mouth parts that match yours quite well and it also has the striping on the abdomen: http://bugguide.net/node/view/76515/bgpage
Ken

I wondered if it was the male of the common mosquito but couldn't find a picture which had a convincing similarity.


http://images.google.be/images?q=culex+pipiens&hl=nl&btnG=Afbeeldingen+zoeken

I am also not convinced about the images shown in genus of the Culiseta.
Perhaps I should not have entered it yet in the bug files ?

I searched for Culex pipiens, and found a czech site with a Culex male, stating the species at the top. It looks to be much the same, green eyes etc. if you look at the pic at the bottom, and the thumbnail pic on the aol search link states male.

http://www.catfish.cz/ruzne/komar/komar.htm

http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/image?query=culex+pipiens

It is true Wallaby, that the eyes of the male of the Culex pipiens on the Czech site also look green, but on both sites there is no clear image of the mouth parts and in the link that Kennedyh has posted the mouth parts of the Culiseta match exactly, although the colour of the eyes doesn't match. So I really don't know.

When I took the picture, the musquito didn't mind me coming close to take its picture, I found it a bit strange as I'm supposed to be its ennemy. Actually I tought it was a female preparing to deposite her eggs. only later after downloading the picture I discovered it had to be a male.

I wish I had taken more pictures of it !

I read on another site that the males don't suck blood, they don't have the mouth parts for it but suck on plant juices instead. There is a pic of the feathery parts half way down, and on the aol search.

Here it is in microscopic detail

http://www.microscopies.com/DOSSIERS/Magazine/Articles/JLegrand-insectes/Prep-insectes.htm

http://www.univ-ubs.fr/ecologie/dipteres.html

Wallaby,

Forgive me but I'm even more confused now, because the macro picture of the male of Culex pipiens (in the second link) has no green eyes ! And the antennae also don't look the same, these look more like fans.

I don't know, but I bet the mosquito's eyes can reflect other things in their surroundings, maybe not important?
It is ironic how hard it is to identify this critter with such an excellent photo!

Which goes to show how difficult this is! All I can say is the light can show different colouring on the eyes.

As for the antennae, the last link I think is a top view, giving the appearance of fans!

I can only say that the thorax colour of the Culex pipiens male looks like yours, that is pale, but again this could be due to light effects. Both are very similar, unless there is some significant difference that someone can come up with you may be stuck.