Why is a mosquito feeding on human blood not a parasite?

Question

I recently read in my Ecology course notes that a mosquito feeding on human blood is not considered as a parasite. However, since it sucks blood from the human body, shouldn't it be regarded as a parasite, just like lice and ticks?

Answer 1

Good question! While technically, a mosquito could be classified as an ectoparasite (a parasite that is primarily found on the skin of the host), the literature does not tend to consider them in this manner because of the amount of time they spend on the host. Ticks, lice, and mites attach or burrow into the host for a long period of time compared to mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are "sippers" meaning they only take a "sip" of the host and move onto the next host vs ticks, lice, and mites, who hang on to the host for a long period of time to feed/take multiple blood meals.

For more information: https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/about.html