Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: What is the largest type of mosquito?
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. It includes the largest known species of mosquito, at up to 18mm (0.71in) in length and 24mm (0.94in) in wingspan.[1] It is among the many kinds of mosquito that do not consume blood. The adults subsist on carbohydrate-rich materials, such as honeydew, or saps and juices from damaged plants, refuse, fruit, and nectar.[2]
Mosquitos belong to the biological Order of Diptera (which includes all two-winged insects), suborder Nematocera, family Culicidea. There are >3,500 different mosquito species with the Aedes and Culex genera being common in North America. It is assumed that any species of mosquito that causes an ordinary mosquito bite reaction in humans is capable of causing MBA. In addition to mosquitoes, the Diptera order includes numerous other types of biting insects such as midges (e.g. sand flies) and gnats. Bites by the latter insects or possibly some other insects may cause reactions that are mechanistically and clinically similar to those seen with mosquito bites.
Biological control or "biocontrol" is the use of natural enemies to manage mosquito populations. There are several types of biological control including the direct introduction of parasites, pathogens and predators to target mosquitoes. Effective biocontrol agents include predatory fish that feed on mosquito larvae such as mosquitofish ("Gambusia affinis") and some cyprinids (carps and minnows) and killifish. Tilapia also consume mosquito larvae. Direct introduction of tilapia and mosquitofish into ecosystems around the world have had disastrous consequences. However, utilizing a controlled system via aquaponics provides the mosquito control without the adverse effects to the ecosystem.
Among humans, the feeding preferences of mosquitoes typically include those with type O blood, those who are heavy breathers, those with an abundance of skin bacteria, those with high body heat, and pregnant women.[31][32] Individuals' attractiveness to mosquitoes also has a heritable, genetically-controlled component.[33]
Biting stress can be severe in varied climatic regions (cold northern or tropics) or conditions of much surface water available for breeding where populations of mosquitoes can become dense. Species of "Aedes", "Anopheles" and "Psorophora" genera transmit equine encephalitis viruses to horses. "Culex", "Aedes", and "Anopheles" species of mosquitoes transmit "Plasmodium" protozoa that cause types of malaria in birds. "Culex" mosquitoes transmit West Nile virus between birds and horses; they transmit Rift Valley fever virus to livestock species and humans. The nematode worm "Dirofilaria immitis" that causes heartworm disease in dogs is transmitted by species of "Culex" and "Aedes". See photograph of microfilaria stage of "Dirofilaria immitus" in blood of dog; adult worms in dog's heart grow to several centimeters long. (Mosquitoes are of major importance as transmitters of many types of pathogenic microorganisms to humans causing diseases such as malaria and yellow fever. "Plasmodium" species causing malaria in humans are exclusively transmitted by "Anopheles" mosquitoes.)
At least three games were in production as of early 2010, "Hanuman Typing warrior", "Hanuman's Quiz Adventure" and the "Mosquito game". The project opened the source code for these three games, written in assembly. One of them teaches players how to type, which can greatly improve their earning potential in the job market. Another is a multiple choice question game, somewhat similar to that featured in the film "Slumdog Millionaire". And finally, a different game was created to raise awareness of malaria (which infects 1.5 million people a year in India) by allowing players to kill mosquitoes and accumulate points toward antimalarial mosquito nets.
The mosquito species that are most frequently infected with WNV feed primarily on birds. Different species of mosquitos take a blood meal from different types of vertebrate hosts, Mosquitoes show further selectivity, exhibiting preference for different species of birds. In the United States, WNV mosquito vectors feed preferentially on members of the Corvidae and thrush family. Among the preferred species within these families are the American crow, a corvid, and the American robin ("Turdus migratorius").
Mosquito saliva contains >30 potentially allergenic proteins. More than 11 of these have been identified in the saliva of the Aedes egypti mosquito. Four such proteins, termed Aed a 1 (an apyrase), Aed 2 (Female-specific protein, D7), Aed 3 (an as yet undefined protein), and Aed a 4 (an α-glucosidase) have been purified as recombinant proteins. Each of these recombinants causes immediate and delayed skin reactions when injected into volunteers with a history of mosquito bite reactivity. As exemplified by the Aed proteins, the proteins in the saliva of any biting mosquito are thought to cause individuals who have not been previously bitten to: a) make IgE and IgG antibodies that bind the proteins inducing their formation and b) develop T cells (a type of lymphocyte) that react against parts of the inducing proteins that are displayed on the surface of cells at the bite site (see Antigen presentation). In subsequent mosquito bites, IgE and IgG appear involved in the development of both immediate and delayed skin reactions while T cells appear involved in development of the delayed skin reactions. The acquired IgE binds mosquito saliva proteins and then triggers skin tissue cells such as mast cells to release at least two mediators of allergic reactions, histamine and leukotriene C4. These mediators contribute to the development of the wheal, itch, and other components of the immediate reaction. This part of the immediate reaction is a classical type I hypersensitivity reaction. The acquired IgG binds mosquito saliva proteins to form an immune complex-triggered type III hypersensitivity reaction that recruits blood leukocytes, including T cells, into the bite area; this response it thought to be required for developing the early stage of the delayed reaction. T cells present in or recruited to the mosquito bite area appear responsible for mediating the full delayed reaction. The full delayed reaction is a type IV hypersensitivity reaction.
Mosquito bite allergies (MBA), also termed hypersensitivity to mosquito bites (HMB), are excessive reactions of varying severity to mosquito bites. MBA are not caused by any toxin or pathogen in the saliva injected by a female mosquito at the time it takes its blood-meal. (Male mosquitos do not take blood-meals.) Rather, they are allergic hypersensitivity reactions caused by the non-toxic allergenic proteins contained in the mosquito's saliva. By general agreement, mosquito bite allergies do not include the ordinary wheal and flare responses to these bites although these reactions are also allergic in nature. Ordinary mosquito bite allergies are nonetheless detailed here because they are the best understood reactions to mosquito bites and provide a basis for describing what is understood about MBA.
Laurentian University professor Gerardo Ulibarri, who has been studying ways to reduce numbers of mosquitoes since 2003, and had previously developed other types of mosquito control devices, began a study locally to find a way to reduce numbers of Culex mosquitoes which spread West Nile virus and other diseases. Ulibarri and his fellow researchers designed an inexpensive trap that they called an ovillanta. Preliminary studies showed that this type of trap can attract about seven times as many mosquito eggs as a conventional ovitrap, especially when more than one ovillanta are used in close proximity, which might be due to the ‘skip-oviposition’ characteristic of the Aedes mosquitoes.
The typical reaction to mosquito bites involves the development of an itchy wheal that may contain a central red dot and is surrounded by splotchy redness. This "immediate reaction" occurs at some time during the first 20 minutes following the bite. Within hours of the bite, a "delayed reaction", in which the wheal evolves into a papule develops and then dissipates over the next few days or weeks. However, there is a wide variability in the type of reaction which individuals mount in response to these bites. The initial mosquito bite(s) in previously unexposed individuals does not cause a skin reaction but does initiate the development of antibodies and/or lymphocytes that are directed against the allergens in mosquito's saliva. These individuals thereby become sensitized and reactive to subsequent mosquito bites. After repetitive mosquito bites, individuals may become less sensitive or completely insensitive to the bites in the natural process of allergen desensitization. Individuals therefore progress through 5 stages in which the type of reaction to a mosquito bite depends on the number of their previous bite exposures and levels of acquired sensitization and desensitization to these bites. The 5 stages an individual may undergo in reacting to repetitive mosquito bites are:In a study of 41 Canadian adults experimentally exposed to mosquito bites, 11 individuals exhibited no reaction, 23 individuals exhibited immediate followed by delayed reactions, 6 individuals exhibited only immediate reactions, and 1 individual exhibited only a delayed reaction. Overall, 70-90% of individuals experience an immediate reaction and 55-65% experience a delayed reaction to mosquito bites.
On 13 March 1945, HQ 8th AF ordered the OSS JE Project transferred to the 492nd Bomb Group's Liberator base at Harrington, Northamptonshire. The 492nd continued using Redstocking to identify the Mosquito missions. On 14 March two Mosquitoes and an A-26 flew to Harrington followed on the 15th by other Mosquitoes and A-26s. The 25th BG aircrew flew the OSS Mosquito JE missions until 492nd men completed training on this aircraft type. Both Mosquito and A-26 remained stationed at Harrington, and on occasion a Mosquito flew to Watton for inspection. OSS JE project personnel at Harrington questioned the competency of 492nd BG maintaining the Mosquito and JE operations and frequently consulted Watton. Aborts excluded, the 654th Bombardment Squadron flew 30 Joan-Eleanor (JE) Mosquito missions from Watton on behalf of the OSS over the Netherlands and Germany, and an additional 21 JE Mosquito missions from Harrington. 492nd flew 10 JE Mosquito missions.
Albion, like all of Guyana, is heavily infested with several types of mosquitoes, though diseases like dengue and yellow fever, as well as malaria, have almost completely been eradicated in the Albion coastal areas. Still, the mosquitoes and flies are quite a constant harassment, and people must sleep under mosquito nets.
Subordinate of Shuga. He resembles a Kabuki actor, speaks in very loud voice, likes to refer to women as "sassy" and uses Mosquito Weapon (蚊武器, "Kabuki") techniques. He can form his mosquitoes into a human shape, he can increase the number of the mosquito by adding one or two amplifier mystickers. Finally he can add a different type of amplifier mysticker to create a giant mosquito. He joined in on the attack on the division section III and attacked the whole place with his mosquito alone. He later went into battle with Misora and was defeated by her and her mysticker "Tengoku".
Mechanistically, the Skeeter syndrome appears to be a particularly intense variant of ordinary the mosquito bite reaction. It involves sequential Type I, III, and IV hypersensitivity reactions that are mediated by the IgE, IgG, and T cells that are directed against mosquito salivary proteins.
To date, few effective traps for adult Asian tiger mosquitoes are available. Those traps that catch other species of mosquitoes do not catch tiger mosquitoes efficiently. A form of an ovitrap called a lethal ovitrap mimics the breeding site for "Ae. albopictus" just like the monitoring tool, but it has the added benefit of contained chemicals that are toxic to the mosquitoes when they enter, but do not harm humans. These traps have had success in some countries to control "Aedes" mosquito populations. A new trap type has now been shown to catch significant numbers of "Ae. albopictus". This device, with the help of a ventilator, produces an upward air current of ammonia, fatty acids, and lactic acids that takes a similar form and smell of a human body. With the addition of carbon dioxide, the efficacy of the trap is increased. This means a suitable tool is available for trapping adult tiger mosquitoes, and for example, examining the existence of viruses in the trapped mosquitoes. Previously, the mosquitoes had to be collected from volunteers to be studied, which is ethically questionable, especially during epidemics. Recent research also indicates this trap type may also have a use as a control tool; in a study in Cesena, Italy, the number of biting tiger mosquitoes was reduced in places where traps were installed.
Meyer also investigated what are called arbovirus diseases, among them equine encephalitis. Several diseases transmitted from animals to humans are due to a group of viruses carried by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes belong to the ‘animal family’ (technically a ‘phylum’) called arthropods; hence the viruses carried by them are "ar"thropod-"bo"rne. Different arboviruses may cause diverse diseases. Here, we summarize examples of Meyer’s outstanding discoveries in this area. 
In the early 1930s, thousands of horses in California suffered and died from a paralytic disease, later called western equine encephalitis. Meyer proved that it was of viral origin. Later it became clear that the virus can also infect humans causing encephalitis, sometimes with deadly complications. – Meyer and his colleagues at the Hooper later demonstrated that mosquitoes pick up the virus from chicken and (migratory) birds and transfer it to man and to horses. It also became clear that the disease is common near irrigated fields where mosquitoes abound. Meyer therefore qualified encephalitis as a man-made disease. Subsequently, a vaccine for horses was developed. And it turned out that the isolation of the virus by Meyer led to the discovery of similar kinds causing other types of encephalitis in man. (Other microbiologists found related types of viruses in other animals than horses.) – Effective mosquito control was the key to minimizing this problem.
Mosquitoes (alternate spelling mosquitos) are a group of about 3500 species of small insects that are a type of fly (order Diptera). Within that order they constitute the family Culicidae (from the Latin culex meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito)[2] is Spanish for "little fly".[3] Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, a pair of wings, three pairs of long hair-like legs, feathery antennae, and elongated mouthparts.
Mosquitoes of the genus Toxorhynchites never drink blood.[43] This genus includes the largest extant mosquitoes, the larvae of which prey on the larvae of other mosquitoes. These mosquito eaters have been used in the past as mosquito control agents, with varying success.[44]
Mosquito bite allergies afflict individuals who have any one of various types of Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+ LPD). 
About 33% of patients with chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection are afflicted by MBA. Other EBV+ LPD reported to predispose individuals to MBA include Epstein-Barr virus-positive Hodgkin disease, hydroa vacciniforme, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, aggressive NK‐cell leukemia (also termed aggressive NK-cell leukemia/lymphoma), and extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type. MBA in individuals with EBV+ CAEBV is the best studied or the MBA in EBV+ LPD; much of what is known in this area is based on these individuals.
A 2006 study suggests mosquito saliva can also decrease expression of interferon−α/β during early mosquito-borne virus infection.[67] The contribution of type I interferons (IFN) in recovery from infection with viruses has been demonstrated in vivo by the therapeutic and prophylactic effects of administration of IFN inducers or IFN itself,[68] and different research suggests mosquito saliva exacerbates West Nile virus infection,[69] as well as other mosquito-transmitted viruses.[70]
Visible, irritating bites are due to an immune response from the binding of IgG and IgE antibodies to antigens in the mosquito's saliva. Some of the sensitizing antigens are common to all mosquito species, whereas others are specific to certain species. There are both immediate hypersensitivity reactions (types I and III) and delayed hypersensitivity reactions (type IV) to mosquito bites.[115] Both reactions result in itching, redness and swelling. Immediate reactions develop within a few minutes of the bite and last for a few hours. Delayed reactions take around a day to develop, and last for up to a week.
In what were, initially, diversionary "nuisance raids," Mosquito bombers dropped 4,000 lb Blockbuster bombs or "Cookies." Particularly after the introduction of H2S (radar) in some Mosquitos, these raids carrying larger bombs succeeded to the extent that they provided a significant additional form of attack to the large formations of "heavies." Latterly in the war, there were a significant number of all-Mosquito raids on big German cities involving up to 100 or more aircraft. On the night of 20/21 February 1945, for example, Mosquitos of No. 8 Group mounted the first of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin.
Some newer mosquito traps or known mosquito attractants emit a plume of carbon dioxide together with other mosquito attractants such as sugary scents, lactic acid, octenol, warmth, water vapor and sounds. By mimicking a mammal’s scent and outputs, the trap draws female mosquitoes toward it, where they are typically sucked into a net or holder by an electric fan where they are collected. According to the American Mosquito Control Association, the trap will kill some mosquitoes, but their effectiveness in any particular case will depend on a number of factors such as the size and species of the mosquito population and the type and location of the breeding habitat. They are useful in specimen collection studies to determine the types of mosquitoes prevalent in an area but are typically far too inefficient to be useful in reducing mosquito populations.
Monitoring these mosquito populations is crucial to see what species are present, if mosquito numbers are rising or falling, and detecting any diseases they carry.