A female mosquito lays about 150 eggs at a time. She lays them on the surface of some still water. Perhaps it is a pond or a puddle or just a little water standing in a tin can. The eggs form a tiny raft. Soon they hatch into "wrigglers," or "wiggle-tails." Each wriggler has a breathing tube that sticks up above the water as the baby insect hangs head down. After several days a wriggler changes to a pupa, which floats about, seemingly resting. But inside the pupa important changes are going on. In a few days a fullgrown mosquito emerges and flies away.For the rest of its life the mosquito lives in the air. If it is a male, it feeds on plant sap or fruit juice. If it is a female, it lives mostly on blood. When a mosquito bites a person, it is doing so simply to try to get something to eat.
All mosquitoes are tiny two-winged insects. The life stories of the many kinds of mosquitoes are all very much the same.
The common house mosquito is a great nuisance. But it does not do much real harm. Some of its relatives, on the other hand, carry dangerous diseases. One kind of mosquito carries malaria. Another carries yellow fever. No wonder scientists are always on the lookout for good ways of fighting mosquitoes.
