Mosquitoes are small, slender bodied, two winged flies belonging to the family Culicidae. They differ from all other flies in having a prominent proboscis or feeding tube projecting from the front of the head. The body and wings of mosquitoes are clothed in scales. Colour, size, shape, and arrangement of the scales are used to identify the different species of mosquitoes. In the Northern Territory there are approximately 100 different species of mosquitoes. Of these only about 40 species are known to bite people, and only about 20 species occur in numbers large enough to cause pest problems. The mosquitoes which are known to occur in the
Northern Territory are listed in Appendix I.