The VMCA is offering a virtual mosquito identification course this year. The course is conducted through the joint effort of VA mosquito control biologists, FREE, and posted on this page to view at your own pace.

This course is not strict taxonomy but is more of a practical training geared toward seasonal interns, field technicians, or biologists new to the area who will be performing adult mosquito speciation. The course will cover general mosquito information including anatomy, bionomics, diseases, fieldwork concerns, and laboratory protocols. Those species occurring in Virginia will be the focus; genera covered include: Aedes, Anopheles, Coquillettidia, Culex, Culiseta, Orthopodomyia, Psorophora, Toxorhynchites, and Uranotaenia.

Normally when VMCA hosts this course, it is done live and there are hands-on specimen ID sections to practice identifying species in each genera. Therefore, in order to get the most out of this virtual course, it is recommended (not required) that you have access to the following:

• adult mosquito specimens
• microscope
• The Mosquitoes of the Mid-Atlantic Region Identification Guide (available for purchase at www.ncmvca.org or you can download the order form below)
• a biologist or supervisor who can help with hands-on specimen identification and of whom you can ask questions

For each presentation below, you may contact each speaker with questions regarding their material if they have listed their contact information within their presentation. If a speaker's contact information is not listed or for any other questions please contact virginiamosquito@gmail.com 

We hope you find this course useful and ask that you please take a moment to click on the button below and fill out our quick survey. This will help us to know how beneficial this platform was and whether we should continue to offer this option.

Thank you!

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