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Mosquito

Lakes in a wetland south of Anchorage, Alaska -- Blaine Harrington III/Corbis

Mosquito and mosquita (from the Spanish meaning little fly^[2]) is a common insect in the family Culicidae (from the Latin culex meaning midge or gnat^[3]). Mosquitoes resemble crane flies (family Tipulidae) and chironomid flies (family Chironomidae), with which they are sometimes confused by the casual observer.

Mosquitoes go through four stages in their life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult or imago. Adult females lay their eggs in water, which can be a salt-marsh, a lake, a puddle, a natural reservoir on a plant, or an artificial water container such as a plastic bucket. The first three stages are aquatic and last 5–14 days, depending on the species and the ambient temperature; eggs hatch to become larvae, then pupae. The adult mosquito emerges from the pupa as it floats at the water surface. Adult females can live up to a month — more in captivity — but most probably do not live more than 1–2 weeks in nature.

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March 11 in history

March 11 is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 295 days remaining until the end of the year.

1824: The United States War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1845: The Flagstaff War: Unhappy with translational differences regarding the Treaty of Waitangi, chiefs Hone Heke, Kawiti and Māori tribe members chop down the British flagpole for a fourth time and drive settlers out of Kororareka, New Zealand.
1848: Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin become the first Prime Ministers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected under a system of responsible government.
1851: The first performance of Rigoletto, written by Verdi.
1872: Construction of the Seven Sisters Colliery, South Wales, begins; located on one of the richest coal sources in Britain.
1990: Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
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