Sapphire-striped mosquito
Uranotaenia sapphirina
The sapphire-striped mosquito is a small mosquito from North America. It is a very unusual mosquito, because it does not bite people. It drinks the blood of earthworms and leeches instead.
Lives in
Eastern North America, near water
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It only drinks blood from earthworms and leeches.
What does it eat?
The female drinks blood, but only from worms like earthworms and leeches.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Sapphire-striped mosquito about 2 km/h (1.2 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Scientists found out in an experiment that it feeds only on earthworms and leeches.
2
One of its close relatives does something just as odd: it only bites frogs and toads.
3
Like all mosquitoes, its babies grow up in water.
4
It is common all over eastern North America.
you asked
Most asked questions about Sapphire-striped mosquito
?Does the sapphire-striped mosquito bite people?
No. It only drinks the blood of earthworms and leeches.
?Where does the sapphire-striped mosquito live?
It is common in eastern North America.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Uranotaenia sapphirina
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Culicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Culicidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Uranotaenia sapphirina (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Mike Ostrowski. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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