Most mosquitoes are aquatic detritivores during their immature stages while adult females usually must blood feed on vertebrate hosts to produce eggs. Mosquitoes are unknown to harbor any obligately beneficial symbionts that are vertically transmitted but all acquire a gut microbiota from the environment by feeding. Recent results further support that mosquitoes require a gut microbiota for normal development under most rearing conditions. In this presentation, I will present recent results indicating several members of the gut microbiota function as nutritional symbionts. I also will discuss how the gut microbiota and diet interact to affect other aspects of mosquito biology.
