Elephant Mosquito

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.

_______________________

If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!

Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.