Mosquitoes are perhaps among the most hated insects. They cause itchy bumps, sleepless nights and ugly crush marks on the wall. In addition, there are pathogens such as malaria that abuse their bloodthirstiness as a means of transport. They find you effortlessly unless you stop breathing and your temperature drops to unhealthy levels. It is carbon dioxide that they are drawn to, after which they zoom in on a nice warm puncture site.
But not the frog leg biter, Culex territans. This mosquito does not like people. She is only interested in cold-blooded frogs. If a female frog leg biter needs a blood meal to mature her eggs, she won’t target CO either2, but croaking. And I’m talking about frogs’ croaking—not specific people, although that would have been nice of this inconspicuous but common mosquito.
The frog leg biter is a lady with guts because of her preferred donor. After all, that frog likes her raw. She has to somehow see that she eats his blood without being eaten herself, and then make her get away to lay her eggs. Like most mosquitoes, she doesn’t do this directly on water, but on banks. Then a rising water level or a rain shower should cause her progeny to wash to a spot with enough algae. That’s what the larvae eat, and what causes their beautiful green color.
The election to Insect of the Year 2022 this mosquito did not win. The above-mentioned positive qualities, beautifully summarized by her ambassador Asha ten Broeke as “a tough woman who takes the biggest shouting”, were apparently not sufficient, they lost out against the blind mosquito hatred.
What has been successful is that the frog leg biter now enjoys much greater fame. What many people probably don’t know is why the animal is called frog leg biter, while that name has undoubtedly also attracted votes.
I’ll tell you how it went. When five species had to be selected from the nominated insects to compete for the title Insect of the Year, the frog leg biter did not yet have a Dutch name. The species was still simply called Culex territans. But yes, even the fact that this is a mosquito would be less intimidating than such a solemn scientific name. So we just decided to come up with something. Peter Koomen, chairman of the Dutch Entomological Society, suggested frog-leg biter, and that was so good that few words were mined.
Photos we later received of this animal showed a remarkably often a mosquito piercing the skin above the bulging eye of a frog. Frog eyes biteer would have been an excellent name, but that does not alliterate very well. It’s a shame, because this mosquito is regularly face to face with the enemy.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 21 May 2022