Main Entry: mos·qui·to

Pronunciation: \mə-ˈskēt-(ˌ)ō, -ə(-w)\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural mos·qui·toes also mos·qui·tos

: any of numerous dipteran flies of the family Culicidae that have a rather narrow abdomen, usually a long slender rigid proboscis, and narrow wings with a fringe of scales on the margin and usually on each side of the wing veins, that have in the male broad feathery antennae and mouthparts not fitted for piercing and in the female slender antennae and a set of needlelike organs in the proboscis with which they puncture the skin of animals to suck the blood, that lay their eggs on the surface of stagnant water, that include many species which pass through several generations in the course of a year and hibernate as adults or winter in the egg state, and that include some species which are the only vectors of certain diseases—see aedes, anopheles, culex

[mosquito illustration]