Usually, the males emerge first. They wait in swarms for the females to break out and fly through, so a male mosquito can grab a female and mate in midair. Mosquito genitalia are located in the abdomen. Some species, in what sounds like a perilous mating ritual, connect high in the air and mate while falling to earth, separating just before they reach the ground. Besides their bite, female mosquitoes can be identified under the microscope by their spindly antennae.
Male antennae are bushy.
Both genders live only two to three weeks. But for those 20 or so days, little can be done to get rid of them. Maryland does not spray much because it is ineffective, Dorothy said. Tiger mosquitoes hide in foliage where insecticide mists cannot touch them. Prince William, the only county in Northern Virginia with a mosquito control office, sprays at night.