Mosquito eater

People quite often give animals or insects names that are really not related to what those animals look like or what they really do. Mosquito eater is only one of such wrong names, although also used for several correct designations.

The most popular yet most inaccurate use of the “mosquito eater” name is attributed to naming crane flies. To some people crane flies look like overgrown mosquitoes and so that wrong name is given to them. Crane flies belong to family Tipulidae of the Diptera order. They are sometimes also called mosquito hawks, gallnippers or jimmy spinners. In the UK they are most commonly referred to as Daddy Long-Legs, while the creatures known in the US as Daddy Long-Legs are actually a species of arachnid known as Opiliones. Larvae of crane flies develop in muddy soils, meadows, backyard lawns and consume roots and are occasionally considered a mild turf pests. Adult craneflies feed on nectar or do not feed at all; most crane fly species live only to mate and die once they become adults and mate. So they do not prey on mosquitoes and do not bite people or any other animals.

One genus of the real mosquitoes - Toxorhynchites - is also sometimes colloquially referred to as "mosquito eaters". As their larvae really prey on larvae of other mosquitoes, the name of mosquito eaters is given correctly.

Gambusia, better known as"Mosquito Fish," is also sometimes called „mosquito eater“ as it eagerly feeds on mosquito larvae. A large female of mosquito fish can consume 100-200 mosquito larve per day. In doing so, this species helps control populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Some mosquito traps are named mosquito eaters mostly for advertising purposes. Products that are designed to lure and then trap and kill mosquitoes may be called this as they "eat" mosquitoes, and thus reduce their populations. Several of such products can be named: Gobblin™ Mosquito Eater, Dragonfly Ultimate Mosquito Eater, Texol’s Mosquitoeater and Mini-Mosquitoeater.