Coquillettidia pertubans

Permanent freshwater marshes and shallow lakes with thick emergent vegetation (cattails, pickerelweed, sawgrass, frogbit, arrowhead, rushes, water lily).

• Adult: Medium-sized with a "salt and pepper" coloration due to a mix of broad white, black, and brown scales. The proboscis is dark with a median band of pale white scales, and the wings are covered in broad dark and light scales. The female's abdomen is bluntly rounded.

• Larva: Grayish-white with long, whip-like antennae. Their most specialized trait is a heavily sclerotized, saw-like siphon used to pierce the roots or submersed stems of aquatic plants for oxygen.

• Eggs: Elongate and initially white, they darken within two hours and are glued together into floating rafts on the water surface.

Throughout Canada, the United States (all Southeastern States), and Mexico.

Generalist feeder; females bite a wide variety of birds and mammals, including cattle, rabbits, and humans; persistent and painful biters; active in shade during day and peak activity at dark.

Overwinters in the larval stage; larvae and pupae attach to underwater roots or stems of aquatic plants in mud bottoms.

Vector of West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE).