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Life in the Pits
by
George F. O'Meara
Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory
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Mosquito terminology:
Crabhole mosquito - Deinocerites cancer
Common name: Crabhole mosquito (ESA approved common name)
Scientific name: Deinocerites cancer Theobald (Insecta: Diptera: Culicidae) |
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INTRODUCTION
All 18 species of the genus Deinocerites are crabhole specialists. Adult Deinocerites use the upper portions of burrows of land crabs as daytime resting sites, whereas the immature stages of these mosquitoes develop in water accumulations at the bottom of these burrows. The distribution of Deinocerites is confined primarily to Central America, the West Indies and nearby parts of North and South America. Eight species are found only on the Atlantic basin, nine species are restricted to the Pacific coast, and only one species (Deinocerites pseudes) occurs on both coasts. Three species of Deinocerites are found in the United States - Deinocerites cancer in Florida and Deinocerites mathesoni and Deinocerites pseudes in Texas. In addition to occupying an unusual microhabitat, Deinocerites exhibit several other atypical traits, which have been most thoroughly studied in the Florida crabhole mosquito, Deinocerites cancer.
DISTRIBUTION |
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The geographic range of Deinocerites cancer includes Florida, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles (excluding Puerto Rico) and coastal regions of Central America from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to the Bocas del Toro Province in Panama. |
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Deinocerites cancer is commonly found in the upper elevations of mangrove swamps and grassy saltmarshes along Florida's east coast as far north as St. Johns County. By contrast, this mosquito is relatively uncommon on Florida's west coast. Florida's crabhole mosquito is normally found in large or medium-sized burrows, such as those made by the Great Atlantic Land Crab, Cardisoma guanhumi.
Florida's crabhole mosquito is normally found in large or medium-sized burrows. Photo by David Mook. |
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The density of Cardisoma guanhumi burrows can exceed 1,000 per acre in some coastal areas of southeastern Florida, but along on the state's west coast these burrows are encountered only occasionally. The burrows constructed by these land crabs may extend for a meter or more before terminating just below the water table.
The Great Atlantic Land Crab, Cardisoma guanhumi. Photo by David Mook. |
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DESCRIPTION & IDENTIFICATION |
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Deinocerites cancer adults are medium-sized mosquitoes clothed mostly with dark or dull-colored scales. They appear similar to mosquitoes of the genus Culex, but differ by having much longer antennae. In both sexes, the maxillary palpi are short, the antennae are non-plumose and longer than the proboscis, and the scutum is covered with narrow brown scales and numerous long setae.
Deinocerites cancer female (left) and male (right). Photo by James Newman. |
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The fourth stage larva of Deinocerites cancer can be distinguished from those of other Florida mosquitoes by its circular shaped head which is widest near the bases of the antennae, an anal segment with dorsal and ventral sclerotized plates, and a single pair of short bulbous anal gills.
Fourth stage larvae of Deinocerites cancer. Photo by Michele Cutwa. |
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