most probably for mate recognition (wing scales are main taxonomic characters e.g. in Anopheles). Another hypotheses include predator escaping, see doi.org/10.3762/bjna...
the scales on the legs allow walking on water: doi.org/10.1103/Phys...

Hello Kyle. The photographic plates posted by @arimcollection.bsky.social were made for educational purposes and do not illustrate individual specimen from the collection. In fact, several individuals may be used to create a plate (this is the case here).

🌦️ main predictors of presence were meteorological factors (temp, atmo pressure, rainfall)

🌱 low (<3m) vegetation drives abundances,

🌳 more mosquitoes in urban parks and residential (with gardens) areas than in densely built areas.

#rstats #randomforest #openscience

📸 Huge thanks to Nil Rahola and Luciano Mucci for their outstanding macrophotography work.
🔗 All publications are freely available on Zenodo.

#Entomology #Mosquitoes #Culicidae #Anopheles #Toxorhynchites #Biodiversity #Taxonomy #VectorBiology #Zenodo #Research #Afrotropical