290 Mosquito Species Recorded in Cambodia
AKP Phnom Penh, April 19, 2022 --

Until 2020, 290 mosquito species equal to 20 genera have been recorded in Cambodia, in which 49 species are newly listed and 43 species are identified as victor of pathogens (Maquart et al., 2020), said the Ministry of Environment on April 18.

According to the source, Mosquito is an insect group with wings that elongated mouthparts are used to bite and suck (Khmer Dictionary 1967). Normally, female mosquitoes feed on blood of people and animals for existence and reproduction while the male ones eat only nectar. Mosquitoes are insects classified in the family Culicidae and more than 3,600 species of small flies currently are recorded in the world.

Based on the medical studies, more than 17 percent of total communicable diseases are caused by insects and kill approximately 1,000,000 people annually and the pathogen-caused insects are introduced to everywhere in the world by means of such human activities as transportation, tourism etc.
Among the pathogen-caused insects, three genera of mosquitoes are more active in disease transmission; namely, Aedes is vector of dengue fever, Chikungunya, ZIKA; Anopheles is vector of human malaria; and Culex serves as vector of Yellow fever and Japanese Encephalitis and those three genera, moreover, transmit Elephantiasis.
For instance, the dengue fever caused by Aedes aegypti is most notable disease in Cambodia after its pandemic occurred in 1995 and more than 400 people were killed. The malaria caused by four mosquito species of Anopheles minimus, A. dirus, A. maculatus, and A. aconitus has seen lower within the last two decades but the disease re-occurred in 2017.

It is noted that a study on mosquito in Phnom Penh, which was conducted for the whole period of 2020 by a researcher from the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation of Royal University of Phnom Penh in cooperation with the Pasture Institute of Cambodia discovered 10 species; with the most specimen abundance of Aedes; i.e. about 87 percent of the total specimen collected while the least amount of Toxorhynchites splendens (Khin in prep).

The Toxorhynchites splendens is indicated as a biocontrol agent against other mosquito species as its larvae is the predator to other species larvae and more notably this species does not vector diseases (Nyamah, 2011).
- AKP

Yes they just counted the ones on my body.

A Color Guide: Mosquitoes Have Favorite Colors...

Mosquitoes have a favorite color, and the reason for it is pretty creepy
By Hannah Sparks
February 17, 2022 8:05am Updated

To avoid yellow fever, try not wearing yellow.

Some colors may be more attractive to the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the deadly disease, as well as Zika virus, chikungunya and dengue, according to a new study.

The findings from University of Washington researchers add depth to our understanding of the pest’s behavior, and more ways to stave off their troublesome — and sometimes deadly — attacks.

Their findings aren’t just helpful for those looking to avoid getting eaten up this summer. The study also bears significance for the millions globally who suffer mosquito-borne diseases annually, an estimated 1 million of whom will die from their contagious bite.

For most animals, the senses are adapted to find food, fast. However, little was previously known about the colors that attracted them.

Observation of how mosquitoes behaved given various scent and visual cues led scientists to identify which clothing colors had lured more mosquitoes. According to their findings, published this month in the journal Nature Communications, those colors are red, orange, black and cyan.

By contrast, some don’t do it for them at all — namely green, purple, blue and white.

First, it’s all the hot air we blow — specifically, carbon dioxide — that piques their interest.

“Mosquitoes appear to use odors to help them distinguish what is nearby, like a host to bite,” said study author Jeffrey Riffell.
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Riffell, a professor of biology at UW, told Sci-News earlier this month, “When they smell specific compounds, like carbon dioxide from our breath, that scent stimulates the eyes to scan for specific colors and other visual patterns, which are associated with a potential host, and head to them.”

Their experiments tracked how mosquitoes responded to various visual stimuli, including their main meal, fleshy morsels of human hand.

But they needed the scent of carbon dioxide — which we can’t smell, by the way — to arouse their appetite.

Previous research had shown that the gas seemed to activate the mosquitos. And the new study demonstrated that, without it, they largely ignored all the colors.
Of course, one must breathe — so they turned to visual cues.

Even after a spritz of CO2, the mosquitos were unmoved by whites, greens, blues and purples. But red, orange, cyan and black had them hankering for human.

That’s probably because many of those colors can be seen on the surface of human skin. “Human skin — irrespective of skin tone or pigmentation — has a lower peak in the green wavelength,” the researchers noted in their report, referring to colors with shorter wavelengths on the visible color spectrum: green, blue and violet.

So it really comes as no surprise why these blood suckers prefer colors of longer wavelengths, red, orange and yellow. They added, “Sensitivity to orange and red correlates with mosquitoes’ strong attraction to the color spectrum of human skin.”
https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/the-creep ... reference/