Anyone fishing along the coastline of New Zealand is likely to encounter mosquitoes at some point. While New Zealand is fortunate from a human viewpoint to have few mosquito species, there are some here that bite us and are potential disease vectors.A mosquito starts life as an egg usually laid on the water's surface or a nearby surface that is likely to be flooded. The larva that emerges is legless and commonly known as a 'wriggler' (Fig 1). On its tail is a siphon which it uses to breathe oxygen at the water's surface. Fan-like arrangements of hairs on its tail help it to swim (wriggle) its way around, and it usually feeds on fine particles of food filtered from the water.
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