''Toxorhynchites (Toxorhynchites) splendens'' is a species of non-hematophagous (not blood-feeding)
mosquito
Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...
belonging to the genus ''
Toxorhynchites
''Toxorhynchites'', also called elephant mosquito or mosquito eater, is a genus of diurnal and often relatively colorful mosquitoes, found worldwide between about 35° north and 35° south. Most species occur in forests. It includes the large ...
''. It is widely used as a predator to control dengue mosquitoes.
Distribution
It shows nearly a cosmopolitan distribution throughout the Old World, except African continent both through human influences and natural methods. It is found in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
,
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
,
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
,
Fiji Islands
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
,
Rotuma Island.
Importance
The large expansion is may be due to naval transport of larva from one place to another. In 1934, these mosquitoes were introduced to Fiji as a method of biological control of ''
Aedes polynesiensis
''Aedes polynesiensis'', the Polynesian tiger mosquito, is only found in the Oceania, South Pacific on the islands of Austral Islands, Cook Islands, Ellice Islands, Fiji, Fiji Islands, Hoorn Islands, Marquesas Islands, Pitcairn Island, Samoa Isla ...
'', and in India and Malaysia to control ''
Aedes aegypti
''Aedes aegypti'' ( or from Greek 'hateful' and from Latin, meaning 'of Egypt'), sometimes called the Egyptian mosquito, dengue mosquito or yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that spreads diseases like dengue fever, yellow fever, malar ...
'' and ''
Aedes albopictus
''Aedes albopictus'' (synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stegomyia albopicta''), from the mosquito (Culicidae) family (biology), family, also known as the (Asian) tiger mosquito or forest mosquito, is a mosquito native to the tropical and Subtropics ...
'' who are prominent vectors of many human diseases. They prefer to consume eggs and larva ''
Aedes aegypti
''Aedes aegypti'' ( or from Greek 'hateful' and from Latin, meaning 'of Egypt'), sometimes called the Egyptian mosquito, dengue mosquito or yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that spreads diseases like dengue fever, yellow fever, malar ...
'' and ''
Anopheles stephensi
''Anopheles stephensi'' is a primary mosquito vector of malaria in urban India and is included in the same subgenus as ''Anopheles gambiae'', the primary malaria vector in Africa. ''A. gambiae'' consists of a complex of morphologically identical ...
''.
Alphamethrin,
deltamethrin
Deltamethrin is a pyrethroid ester insecticide. Deltamethrin plays a key role in controlling malaria vectors, and is used in the manufacture of long-lasting insecticidal mosquito nets; however, resistance of mosquitos and bed bugs to deltamethrin ...
,
Malathion
Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide which acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. In the USSR, it was known as carbophos, in New Zealand and Australia as maldison and in South Africa as mercaptothion. The compound's name is presumably ...
can be used to control the mosquito.
References
External links
Laboratory evaluation of ''Toxorhynchites splendens'' (Diptera: Culicidae) for predation of ''Aedes albopictus'' mosquito larvae.OBSERVATIONS ON ''TOXORHYNCHITES SPLENDENS''The use of ''Toxorhynchites splendens'' for identification and quantitation of serotypes contained in the tetravalent live attenuated dengue vaccineFrequency-dependent prey selection by larvae of ''Toxorhynchites splendens'' (Diptera: Culicidae)
{{Taxonbar, from=Q13853563