Editing Mosquito (section)

=== Fossil record ===

[[File:Culex malariager in Dominican amber.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Fossilized mosquito encased in amber |[[Culex malariager|''Culex malariager'']] mosquito infected with the [[malaria]]l parasite [[Plasmodium dominicana|''Plasmodium dominicana'']], in [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]] amber of [[Miocene]] age, 15–20 million years ago<ref name="Poinar 2014">{{cite journal |last=Poinar |first=George |title=Evolutionary History of Terrestrial Pathogens and Endoparasites as Revealed in Fossils and Subfossils |journal=Advances in Biology |volume=2014 |date=2014-06-12 |doi=10.1155/2014/181353 |pages=1–29 |doi-access=free }}</ref>]]

A 2023 study suggested that ''[[Libanoculex |Libanoculex intermedius]]'' found in [[Lebanese amber]], dating to the [[Barremian]] age of the Early Cretaceous, around 125 million years ago was the oldest known mosquito.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Azar |first1=Dany |last2=Nel |first2=André |last3=Huang |first3=Diying |last4=Engel |first4=Michael S. |date=December 2023 |title=The Earliest Fossil Mosquito |journal=Current Biology |volume=33 |issue=23 |pages=5240–5246.e2 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.047 |pmid=38052162 |s2cid=265612144 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2023CBio...33E5240A }}</ref> However its identification as a mosquito is disputed, with other authors considering it to be a [[Chaoboridae|chaoborid]] fly instead.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harbach |first=Ralph E. |date=2024-03-12 |title=Libanoculex&nbsp;intermedius is not a mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae): It is a chaoborid (Chaoboridae) |url=https://mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5424.1.9 |journal=Zootaxa |language=en |volume=5424 |issue=1 |pages=139–144 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.5424.1.9 |pmid=38480294 |issn=1175-5334 |access-date=9 August 2024 |archive-date=9 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240809084423/https://mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5424.1.9 |url-status=live }}</ref> Three other unambiguous species of [[Cretaceous]] mosquito are known. ''[[Burmaculex antiquus]]'' and ''[[Priscoculex burmanicus]]'' are known from [[Burmese amber]] from Myanmar, which dates to the earliest part of the [[Cenomanian]] age of the Late Cretaceous, around 99 million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Borkent |first1=A. |last2=Grimaldi |first2=D.A. |year=2004 |title=The earliest fossil mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae), in Mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber |journal=[[Annals of the Entomological Society of America]] |volume=97 |issue=5 |pages=882–888 |doi=10.1603/0013-8746(2004)097[0882:TEFMDC]2.0.CO;2 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Poinar |first1=George |last2=Zavortink |first2=Thomas J. |last3=Brown |first3=Alex |date=2019-01-30 |title=''Priscoculex burmanicus'' n. gen. et sp. (Diptera: Culicidae: Anophelinae) from mid-Cretaceous Myanmar amber |journal=Historical Biology |volume=32 |issue=9 |pages=1157–1162 |doi=10.1080/08912963.2019.1570185 |s2cid=92836430}}</ref> ''[[Paleoculicis minutus]]'', is known from [[Canadian amber]] from Alberta, Canada, which dates to the [[Campanian]] age of the Late Cretaceous, around 79 million years ago.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Poinar, G. O. |display-authors=etal |year=2000 |title=''Paleoculicis minutus'' (Diptera: Culicidae) n. gen., n. sp., from Cretaceous Canadian amber with a summary of described fossil mosquitoes |url=http://www.geologica-acta.com/pdf/aghv3501a12.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=[[Geologica Acta|Acta Geológica Hispánica]] |volume=35 |pages=119–128 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029193407/http://www.geologica-acta.com/pdf/aghv3501a12.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-29 |access-date=2009-12-10}}</ref> ''P. burmanicus'' has been assigned to the [[Anophelinae]], indicating that the split between this subfamily and the [[Culicinae]] took place over 99 million years ago.<ref name=":3" /> Molecular estimates suggest that this split occurred 197.5 million years ago, during the Early [[Jurassic]], but that major diversification did not take place until the Cretaceous.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lorenz |first1=Camila |last2=Alves |first2=João M.P. |last3=Foster |first3=Peter G. |last4=Suesdek |first4=Lincoln |last5=Sallum |first5=Maria Anice M. |date=2021-05-10 |title=Phylogeny and temporal diversification of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) with an emphasis on the Neotropical fauna |journal=Systematic Entomology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=798–811 |doi=10.1111/syen.12489 |bibcode=2021SysEn..46..798L |s2cid=236612378}}</ref>