Episode 3191
Opifex fuscus
Thu, 2026-Jan-29 00:40 UTC
Length - 1:57
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
The featured article for Thursday, 29 January 2026, is Opifex fuscus.
Opifex fuscus, known commonly as the saltpool mosquito, is a species of mosquito that is endemic to New Zealand. This species was first described in taxonomic literature in 1902 by Frederick Hutton. The mosquitoes occur on the coast, where the larvae live in rock pools within the spray zone.
To cope with their habitat, the larvae are able to tolerate a wide range of water salt concentrations. As adults they feed on blood whereas the larvae feed on algae and decomposing matter. The larvae have mouthparts that specialise towards either filter feeding or grazing, depending on what food source is available. They are widespread throughout the rocky coasts of New Zealand but have been displaced from the Otago region by the introduced species Aedes australis. The males wait on the surface of the rock pools and mate with female pupae before they mature into adults.
The larvae of this species are also known to be infected by the fungus Coelomomyces psorophorae, which uses copepods as intermediate hosts. In laboratory studies, O. fuscus is capable of spreading the Whataroa virus, but is not known to spread any diseases in nature. They are also known by the Māori name naeroa, which is generally applied to mosquitoes as a whole.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:40 UTC on Thursday, 29 January 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see Opifex fuscus on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm neural Kevin.
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