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quote:The Mosquito is a member of the family Culicidae; these insects have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood from other animals. Size varies but is rarely greater than 15 mm (0.6 inch). Mosquitoes weigh only about 2 to 2.5 mg (0.03 to 0.04 grain). They can fly at about 1.5 to 2.5 km/h (0.9 to 1.6 mph) and most species are nocturnal.Mosquitoes are believed to have evolved around 170 million years ago during the Jurassic era (206–135 million years ago) with the earliest known fossils from the Cretaceous era (144–65 million years ago). They evolved in the land mass that is now South America, spreading initially to the northern continent Laurasia and re-entering the tropics from the north. Ancestral mosquitoes were about three times the size of the existant species and they are a sister group to the Chaoboridae (biting midges).