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Microbiology · Arthropod vectors

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus !

  • Parasite
  • Exam priority: medium

Striped-legged mosquitoes that bite by day and breed in clean water in containers. They spread dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.

Updated 2026-11-01

Also called: yellow fever mosquito, Asian tiger mosquito (Ae. albopictus)

At a glance

Shape
Dark mosquito with white leg bands; Ae. aegypti with a white lyre pattern on the thorax, Ae. albopictus with a single central white stripe
Family
Culicidae, subfamily Culicinae
Type
Blood-feeding dipteran insect (vector)
Size
Adult a few millimetres long

Morphology

  • Black adult with white scales on legs and thorax; females have a piercing proboscis.
  • Larvae with a breathing siphon that hang at an angle from the water surface.
  • Eggs glued to the container wall just above the waterline.

Transmission

  • The female is infected by biting a viraemic person and, after about 8 to 12 days of extrinsic incubation, passes the virus in saliva for the rest of her life.
  • It bites mainly by day, in and around homes; it may bite several people during one blood meal.
  • It can pass the virus to its eggs (transovarial transmission), which helps keep it going between outbreaks.

Reservoir: Humans (urban cycle of dengue, Zika and chikungunya); Non-human primates in the sylvatic cycle of yellow fever

Vector: Ae. aegypti is the main urban vector; Ae. albopictus is secondary and lives more in peri-urban and rural areas. Sylvatic yellow fever is carried by Haemagogus and Sabethes.

Isolation precautions

What the care team adds to standard precautions.

  • Standard

Life cycle

  1. The female lays eggs on the walls of water-holding containers, above the waterline.
  2. Eggs survive drying for months and hatch when rain or refilling covers them.
  3. Larvae (wigglers) live in the water and moult four times.
  4. The pupa lives in water without feeding, and the adult emerges from it.
  5. Egg to adult takes about 7 to 10 days; the female then seeks blood for her next batch.
  6. It flies little: it usually stays within a few blocks of where it emerged.

Virulence factors

  • Highly anthropophilic: it prefers to bite people and lives indoors (Ae. aegypti).
  • Multiple interrupted bites in one meal multiply infections.
  • Drought-resistant eggs allow repopulation after the dry season.
  • Growing insecticide resistance in many populations.

Diseases it causes

Diagnosis

  • Entomological identification of larvae, pupae and adults by public health laboratories.
  • Aedes indices (house, container and Breteau) and pupal indices to measure transmission risk.
  • Larval traps and ovitraps to detect Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus in new municipalities.

Treatment

Does not apply to the insect. Control uses larvicides in stored water and adulticides (pyrethroids or organophosphates) during outbreaks, with insecticide-resistance monitoring.

Drug class only; doses and regimens are set by the clinician from the current guideline.

Prevention

  • Removing breeding sites: cover, empty and scrub water containers every week, especially low tanks and washbasins.
  • Collecting tyres, bottles and other objects that hold rainwater.
  • Bed nets, window screens, long clothes and repellents (DEET, picaridin, IR3535), also during the day.
  • Focal spraying during outbreaks and community clean-up campaigns.
  • Yellow fever vaccine in the PAI schedule for people living in or travelling to risk areas.

Test yourself

Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.

When does Aedes aegypti mainly bite?

By day, in and around homes; that is why a night-time bed net is not enough and repellent and long clothes are also used by day.

Where does Aedes aegypti lay its eggs?

On the walls of containers with fairly clean water, just above the waterline: tanks, tyres, vases, bottles.

What is the Breteau index?

The number of containers with Aedes larvae per hundred houses inspected; it is used to estimate transmission risk.

Which mosquitoes carry sylvatic yellow fever in Colombia?

Mosquitoes of the genera Haemagogus and Sabethes; Aedes aegypti takes part in the urban cycle.

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Educational content on microorganisms; not a treatment guide and no substitute for a health professional's advice. No doses are given.

Sources: Life Cycle of Aedes Mosquitoes | Mosquitoes | CDC (CDC, 2024); Dengue (WHO, 2025); Informe técnico entomológico de arbovirosis, Colombia 2021 (Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS), 2021).

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Representative model, for educational purposes only.