干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Mites are known to be parasitic on both invertebrate and vertebrate animals and mites that parasitize mosquitoes are recorded in a few places worldwide. Immature stages of mosquitoes were collected from different breeding habitats in Al-Ahsaa Oasis, eastern region of Saudi Arabia then identified into species and preserved for further EM studies. Micrographs revealed the parasitism of an aquatic mite species on the Culex pipiens mosquito pupa. Such result revealed for the first time the record of mosquito parasitic mite in Saudi Arabia. Both parasitism of mites and its influences on mosquitoes as well as possibility to use as biological control agent for mosquito immatures are discussed.