Mosquito larvae identification..

[FredLikesNewts]

So i have a pet turtle on my deck in a big rubbermaid container and theres a smaller one i leave to age tap water in when i change the water in the turtle tank. The aging tap waters been out there for a while and has become a breeding spot for mosquitos as ive collected numerous larvae from there, but im not sure if theyre mosquitoes anymore.

The larvae look like mosquitoe larvae, siphon and they wiggle when the water is disturbed but they stay at the bottom of the tank/container for a pretty long time when i thought most mosquito larvae just float at the top. When i introduce them to the tank with my E. Bislineata larvae, they go straight to the gravel and rocks and dont really hang at the surface. Could it be just because the water is oxygenated by the filter and they dont need to get oxygen from the surface? just a guess, not much scientific backing behind it.

Another reason i suspect these larvae not to be mosquitoes is because today i went to collect more and i found waht i think to be pupae, although they are not the pupa of a typical mosquito, they look like a caterpillars except very small and brown.

I will post pictures later because i am unable to do so now. They are a faint, washy red color and have black heads.

So is it possible that the larvae I've found to be of some fly or a speices other than mosquito? i live in New York state if that helps.

 

[cg]

Without seeing a pic, I would assume midge larvae, also known as bloodworms.

 

[FredLikesNewts]

heres an image, its a little blurry, but you can see them at the bottom of the cup. At 12 oclock and 4 o clock there are what i think to be pupa sitting at the surface.

 

[Greatwtehunter]

If your talking about the 2 black pupae at the top, they look like mosquito pupae to me. There are 150 species of mosquito in the US so as to which one it is, I have no idea.

 

[FredLikesNewts]

oh ok.
http://www.hudsonregional.org/mosquito/images/aedes_aegypti_pupa.jpg
this is what i thought most mosquito pupae looked like.

 

[Daniel]

Most of them do look like this picture - if you can get close enough on them with a macro objective. The only thing that differs significantly is their color. Have a look at these pictures, they show pupa of the same species from Europe - the first one younger and the second one nearly to hatching (sorry for the poor quality, but these are only cuttings):

 

[FredLikesNewts]

yea the pupae ive been finding look nothing like the pictures in the above post, which is why i was confused as to whether or not they were mosquitoes. But i guess they are and their good food for my salamanders because i cant get black worms. Ive also been finding an occasional midge larvae in the mosquito pool.