Eastern Treehole Mosquito

- top of scutum dark - FMEL - patch of white scales along edge of scutum; legs dark - FMEL Florida Medical Entomology Lab - FMEL Adult Female: - Legs, wings and proboscis are completely darkscaled - The abdomen is mainly dark scaled with only the margins of the last four segments with pale patches - Scutum with dark reddish brown broad medial band contrasting with silver scales laterally* Primary vector of LaCrosse Encephalitis virus. Females will bite any time of day. Ochlerotatus triseriatus is not the mosquito that you slap in the evening, or the one that has Joe Public on the phone all summer long with complaint calls. It just isn't all that abundant in most places in its range. Ochlerotatus triseriatus never drew much attention until it was found to be the vector of La Crosse encephalitis virus. La Crosse encephalitis is primarily a problem of children in the upper Midwest and east. Symptoms can range from a mild flu-like illness to seizures and coma. Ohio leads the nation in number of cases, followed by Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Indiana. Outside this LaCrosse encephalitis crescent, cases occur in Texas, North Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, West Virginia and New York. (Walker 1992) Filial infection is important for the La Crosse virus, which causes serious brain disease or death in about 72 Americans each year, most of them children. That virus is transmitted to humans by Aedes triseriatus , a forest mosquito that picks it up from chipmunks. La Crosse virus passes down easily in mosquito eggs; about 70 percent of mosquito females maturing from those eggs inherit the virus, Dr. Tesh said. New York Times, 2016