News Animals

Video captures young mosquitoes launching their heads to eat other mosquitoes

High-speed filming reveals hunting tactics of the insect larvae

a mosquito larva lunging to eat a different mosquito, with tweezers shown to show the tiny size of the insects

In an extreme pounce, a Psorophora mosquito larva (left) can shoot its blocky head forward to grab and gulp a different mosquito species.

R. Hancock et al/Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am 2022

By Susan Milius

A kind of teenager mosquito can suddenly shoot its head forward from its body — stretching its neck into a skinny cord — to bite into another youngster. And that’s just one of the ways young mosquitoes kill other mosquitoes, a new study shows.