🧪 🦟 🎨Based on a recent post by @nmoiroux.bsky.social I decided to post something I did a couple of years ago on the bird site. Enjoy! Keep reading for amazing mosquito paintings! bsky.app
🎨 🦟 Beautiful illustration by Amedeo J. E. Terzi (buff.ly ) in Edwards' "Mosquitoes of the Ethiopian Region, Part III" (1942) #entomology #mosquitoes #taxonomy 🧪 🌍️ 🌐
🦟I have a passion for mosquito ID keys in the form of book (> 80 so far) from around the world. Most have good quality functional drawings but I just received a book that turns out to have probably the best quality mosquito illustrations I have ever seen (and I have quite a lot of books). 🦟🧵 Typical ID books fall into one of two categories for illustrations: few or just enough. Some books simply don't offer many illustrations, instead focusing on explaining character states and points of interest with a few line drawings. Case in point, Mosquitoes of Surinam from 1925.
Others provide more elaborate images, showing multiple aspects of anatomy including areas that are not diagnostic. One of the better ones is Tanaka et al. "Mosquitoes of Japan and Korea" (C) 1979. They offer some really beautiful line drawings of adults. One of the rare pubs that offer measurements.
Some are more "basic" perhaps due to artistic skill (honestly not throwing shade here as they are all better than I could do). Some just are a bit...lacking. Here is Headlee "Mosquitoes of New Jersey" images by J.B. Smith. *The last one is really nice though (by RSP)
However, there are also some _Stunning_ drawings that really exceed expectations. Case in point is Howard et al. "Mosquitoes of North and Central America and the West Indies" (C) 1912. As far as I can tell it was LO Howard himself who did the larvae drawings. *Fun fact his Ae. aegypti is on my arm.
However I was totally unprepared for the illustrations I received when I purchased a copy of JD Gillett's "Common African Mosquitoes" from 1972. Before I share any illustrations (really they were done as watercolor paintings) let me tell you more about the book and the artist.
Gillett writes that he had collected about 60 species of mosquitoes in Africa over 20 years (including from Uganda, Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zanzibar). The book was not meant as an exhaustive key but to "help the people...in Africa to identify their own mosquitoes". Africa keys are rare. To that end he wished to provide detail about their ecology and medical importance but also the anatomy of adults, including colors and patterns. He mentions his initial decision to photograph pinned adults, but eventually determined that would not show the detail he was after.
So what to do? He lands on having paintings done of each species, which would allow all the subtle detail and color to be shown. But, two problems: who will do it and how to find $ to pay an artist to spend their full time on these images? Solution for the first issue? He finds his artist!
Enter Dr. Judith G. Smith of Brunel Uni (the Uni started in 1966, just 6 yrs before the publication). For funding he got a grant from The Wellcome Trust (established by the pharmaceutical magnate H. Wellcome). They insisted keeping the $ of the book low so the target audience may afford it.
Because of the high costs to produce each painting, they limited it to just 48 panels. He of course wanted to include medically important species, but also common species, even if harmless. Amazingly he also eludes to the inclusion of some based on their (dare I say) beauty. ♥️🦟
One feature of most (all?) keys is that they don't concern themselves with mosquito body size. Why would they as size is _almost_ never used as an ID feature. This decision comes with caveats, mostly that sizes vary within species. However this decision is really striking to me as we will see!
Another amazing decision was to paint these in full color to reflect the actual animals. Most keys (see the 1st posts in this 🧵) are in B&W. I think that's how people think of mosquitoes anyway (small and "dark"). This is simply not true for many species (as you will see).
OK, before I show you the illustrations here is the type of info Gillett included on the opposite panels of the images. Here is the panel for Aedes aegypti, of one the best know (and perhaps most medically important) species. He provides basic info on patterns as well as ecology and disease.
What follows are a few of Dr. Smith's amazing paintings of mosquito species from Africa. I've tried to keep the entire page in frame, as don't forget, the are drawn to scale. What is that scale? 1/12 scale as Gillett mentions in the text below.
Let's start with the smallest one in the book, Hodgesia spp. which are midge-like. We are told the 4 species are not easily distinguished. Based on other species shown in the book this genus may contain the smallest species of mosquitoes in the world (need to research that). Uncropped to show size🤏🦟
For contrast, here is Anopheles implexus (I think Dr. Smith used the whole canvas here). This species is stunning, with it's yellow and brown scales set against the white bands, themselves set against dark legs. It's a forest species, with adults resting on tree trunks. It bites cattle & man.
Staying in the "Large" category, Coquillettidia fuscopennata. I don't think we're really accustomed to seeing🟨mosquitoes, but it seems to be a common color for this genus in Africa (the other species all show a lot of 🟨). It bites man and is medically important for CHIKV, RVF. Those leg spines! 👀
Now for something completely different. Mansonia africana (medium). It's like a kaleidoscope (yellow, gray-green, brown, black, white). It seems somewhat domestic as it's found resting in houses a lot, and has been found to carry 8 viruses along with transmitting falarial worms.
Not sure what to make of the next one, Aedeomyia furfura but it's odd. Those tufts on the legs of upstanding scales on the femora is (again) odd. They remind me of Aedes in the subgenus Mucidus. Also, what's up with those antenna? Not medically important but the phenotype leads to so many questions.
Last one, Aedes (Neomelaniconion) circumluteolus. The colors here (mostly yellow and brown) give this species a real 1970s vibe. I decided to use this one last as its had more viruses isolated (9) than any other species so of course it bites man. Also coming in hard with those leg spines.
That's 7 of the 48 paintings and I've not exhausted all the good stuff. I'm still blown away by the colors and variation of these animals, as well as Dr. Smith's artistry (and Dr. Gillett's decision to go with the harder and more expensive painting approach). I'm glad he did (science+art win-win)! Addendum. I'd really like to know more about Judith G. Smith. I couldn't find much on the internet so I'm not sure what her career was like. Gillett lists her as a senior research assistant at Brunel. I did find one other reference to her work, Grasshoppers by VK Brown from 1990.
f anyone knows what happened to Dr. Smith or has more info I've love to hear from you. For now, Gillett's "Common African Mosquitos" is going to have a central place in my collection. ---Too bad there were no Sabethes in Africa for Dr. Smith to get her brush on! Since writing this in 2024 I had a few small updates. Although I've had no luck finding JG Smith (although I reached out to an artist with that name only to find it was the wrong person) it's likely the originals may be in the British Society but I've not had a chance to find out. Gillett published another book in 1972 (same year as Common African Mosquitoes) called "The Mosquito" (by Doubleday), which is a general overview of knowledge of the group not restricted to just Africa. He acknowledges Dr. Smith again for doing all the text figures (mostly line drawings).
Oddly, he published almost the same exact book in 1971 under the title, "The Mosquitos" (by The Chaucer Press, London). Again, attributing all the drawings to Dr. Smith.
I bring up these books as recall I mentioned it was too bad that Gillett didn't work in South America as he missed out in having Dr. Brown paint a member of the genus Sabethes? Well, turns out he DID have her do one for these more general books, and it's a stunner (setae paddles on ALL the legs!) 👀
Hopefully these images show the diversity and (gasp!) beauty of mosquitoes. They of course have a bad reputation as transmitter of pathogens that can kill us but based on our work that's < 10% of the 3,700 species worldwide (Yee et al. 2022). So many undiscovered and amazing discoveries await! 🦟✋🧵