Aedes vexans

Temporary rain pools, sheet water, tire ruts, flooded woodlands, edges of semipermanent swamps and bogs, stormwater management basins, and salt marsh impoundments.

• Adult: A medium-sized mosquito with a uniformly dark proboscis (lacking a pale band). Its most identifying feature is the abdomen: the third, fourth, and fifth segments have dark scales with basal white bands featuring a posterior v-shaped notch. The hind tarsi have very narrow white bands at the base, less than one-third the length of the tarsal segment.

• Larva: The anal segment is incompletely ringed, and the antennae are shorter than the head. The comb on the eighth segment consists of 8 to 16 scales arranged in an irregular row.

Widespread in southern Canada and throughout the United States (except Hawaii); also Palearctic, African, and Oriental regions.

Females seek blood from available hosts (mammals and birds); active at dusk and feed in shady places during the day.

Overwinters in the egg stage.

Primary vector of dog heartworm; implicated in transmission of WEE, St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE), and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE).