A small, dark brown species with conspicuous white basal and apical tarsal bands; wing length 3-4 mm.
Female
Proboscis dark-scaled. Palps with a few white scales in some specimens. Pedicels dark brown with darker scales on median surface. Scutum brown-scaled, reddish brown when rubbed. Margins of scutum with paler yellowish brown scales and pale posterior half stripes in some specimens. No hypostigmal or postprocoxal scale patch. No lower mesepimeral setae. Abdomen dark-scaled with incomplete pale basal bands, forming lateral triangular patches in most specimens. Most tarsomeres with pale basal and apical bands of equal length (apical bands 4 or more times width of basal bands in sierrensis). Tarsomere 5 of hind leg entirely white-scaled. Wings dark scaled.
Larva
Antennae spiculate, apical half pigmented. Head setae 5-C 4 to 9-branched, 6-C 3 to 6-branched. Seta 1-M short, about same length as 2-M (1-M longer than 2-M in pullatus and pionips). 25-40 comb scales in an irregular patch. Siphon 3 x 1, pecten teeth evenly spaced along basal 1/3. Seta 1-S 5-branched, inserted just distal to pecten. 1-X shorter than, and papillae longer than, saddle.
Aëdes is the Greek word for disagreeable. Without the dieresis the word means house or building. Although Meigen did not use a dieresis, he translated it as troublesome. Some authorities, therefore, write the generic name Aëdes. Most species of British Columbian mosquitoes belong to this genus. The females all have short palps, usually less than one quarter of the length of the proboscis, and in both sexes the posterior margin of the scutellum is tri-lobed with the setae in three tufts.
Aedes is a large and variable genus and in the field the most reliable character to separate females from other mosquito genera is the pointed abdomen. Males can be identified in the field by their large and separated gonocoxites but if these are not obvious the thorax can be examined for the presence of postspiracular setae which are absent in the males of Culex, Culiseta, and Mansonia. A slide of the terminalia, as well as confirming the genus, can be used to determine the species. (See Wood et at. 1979).
When at the water surface, the larvae of all culicines hang downwards from the hydrophobic tip of the siphon and are thus easily distinguished from anophelines.
Aedes larvae can be distinguished from those of Culex and Culiseta by the position of the siphon seta (1-S). It is never at the base of the siphon in aedines and can be seen with a hand lens if the larva cooperates.
The pupae are hard to identify. It is usually simpler to let them emerge.
Nearly all aedine adults in British Columbia die in late summer or autumn. The eggs are laid singly or in clusters, usually in crevices at the margins of suitable breeding sites. They do not float. Most aedines overwinter as eggs.
Ae. canadensis is a typical woodland species breeding in temporary pools. Adults have been found from May to September and although most of the eggs are laid in sites that fill with melted snow in early spring, others may be laid in sites that are submerged by later spring or summer rainfall. Brust (1968) found that, although most eggs overwinter, about 30% will hatch the year they are laid so that there may be a partial 2nd generation. Males have been seen, after sunset, swarming between dwarf spruces in swampy ground (Dyar 1919). Ae. canadensis has been collected along the Fraser Valley at least as far as Prince George, in the Okanagan and Kootenays and as far north as Lower Post. It is not generally common enough to be a pest but is a persistent biter in woodland, attacking low.
"This is a fairly common species found in the late summer throughout the Province. In the south it may produce two generations a year and is a very general feeder on animals ranging from amphibia to mammals. They have not yet been found with [West Nile] virus in Canada." (Belton 2007, with permission).
References
Belton, Peter 2007. British Columbia mosquitoes as vectors of West Nile virus. Peter Belton web site. Simon Fraser University.