Mosquito anatomy

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Mosquito's body has typical insect body structure and consists of three basic parts: head, thorax, and abdomen.

• whole body
  • head the head is specialized for acquiring sensory information and feeding; the head contains the eyes, a pair of long segmented antennae, proboscis, and two sensory palps
    • antenna the antennae are important for detecting host odors as well as odors of breeding sites where females lay eggs
    • ocellus pl. ocelli; also called simple eye
    • compound eye the eye consists of one to thousands of ommatidia which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells
    • brain complex of six fused ganglia (three pairs) located dorsally within the head capsule; each part of the brain controls (innervates) a limited spectrum of activities in the insect's body
  • thorax the thorax is specialized for locomotion; three pairs of legs and a pair of wings are attached to the thorax; thorax consists of prothorax, mesothorax, and metathorax
    • prothorax the foremost of the three segments in the thorax; bears the first pair of legs
      • salivary gland the paired salivary glands are present in the thorax flanking the oesophagus; the salivary glands (i) facilitate blood feeding, (ii) transmit parasites, (iii) produce chemicals for completion of parasite life cycle, (iv) have probable receptors for recognition of sporozoites
  • abdomen the abdomen is specialized for food digestion and egg development
    • midgut mesenteron; middle part of alimentary canal; stomach; the malarial parasite sporozoites burst out of the midgut-stage oocysts into the hemocoel (an open circulatory system) to locate and invade salivary glands of blood-sucking female prior to transmission to a vetebrate host
    • hindgut mesenteron; middle part of alimentary canal; stomach; the malarial parasite sporozoites burst out of the midgut-stage oocysts into the hemocoel (an open circulatory system) to locate and invade salivary glands of blood-sucking female prior to transmission to a vetebrate host
  • fat body chalky globular structure, which works somewhat like a liver by metabolizing and storing carbohydrates, lipids and proteins; it was suggested that fat body regulates mosquito host-seeking behavior and is cosidered the main immune organ in insects; fat body tissues are widely distributed and believed to be regionally specialized
  • hemocyte a cellular component of the blood