August 28, 2025

What an interesting creature. This is an Elephant Mosquito (Toxorhynchites rutilus). It is indeed a mosquito, in the family Culicidae, and in North America it is one of the largest known species of mosquito which explains, along with its curved proboscis, its common name.

This species doesn’t drink our blood, instead adults consume carbohydrate-rich things like honeydew, plant sap, juices of rotting fruit, and flower nectar. And their larvae eat the larvae of other mosquitoes and other similar aquatic prey.

A mosquito that I love having around.

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