All The Most Revolting Mosquitoes from Science Fiction and Fantasy
Mutant Mosquitoes from Skeeter:
Directed by former 80’s teen idol, Clark Brandon, 1992’s Skeeter holds the distinction of being the first true blue killer mosquito film. Spawned from vats of toxic waste unearthed by a crooked land developer (Jay Robinson, channeling Angus Scrimm by way of Sydney Greenstreet), the mutant “skeeters” of the film’s title plague the town of Clear Sky, California, as they lay waste to its livestock, leaving behind a string of eerie cattle mutilations in their wake.
In 1995, director Gary Jones gave us his louder, gorier response to Skeeter with the (theatrically released!) Mosquito. When a fallen UFO sinks into a remote swamp in Michigan, the craft’s radioactive propulsion nacelles contaminate the local mosquito population, hatching bloodthirsty mutants. With chainsaw duels, Gunnar Hansen, and Ron Asheton (lead guitarist for the Stooges) playing a park ranger, Mosquito apparently sought to nullify the comparatively restrained Skeeter — including an infamous scene where a feeding mosquito causes her victim’s eyes to hellishly rocket from his screaming, prolapsed head. A staple of the USA and Syfy networks, Mosquito has garnered a small but undeniably potent cult following over the years: second-hand copies of the out-of-print DVD reach upwards of $400 on Ebay and Amazon.
The first animals to be conjured by the board game, a trio of huge, Paleozoic mosquitoes attack Judy and Peter after rolling the dice and receiving a threatening riddle: “A little bite will make you itch. Make you sneeze, make you twitch.”
A species of dungeon-crawling mosquito the size of a flying housecat, the Stirge (named for the Striges: vampiric owls of Roman mythology), are easily identified by their large mating pincers, pink, pallid proboscises and four, unique sets of webbed, bat-like wings. Though Stirge typically pair in small, evenly numbered groups, swarms are not uncommon, consisting of fourteen or more to a flock. In volumes, these colonies are referred to as “storms”.
In an early contribution to 2000AD from writer Si Spurrier and artist Cam Kennedy, a pair of Ciudad Paranquilla judges piloting a criminal transport ship crash land on the future-flung Machu Picchu – now, a mosquito-strewn hellzone called Zancudo Picchu. As the “malaria plasmatron” infested overlords enslave the humans living in the region’s outer megacities, the Zancudo queen demands a daily blood tithe – but an insurrection is looming, and mosquitoes, we learn, weren’t the first giant insects to rule Peru. Never reprinted, the three-part miniseries, Zancudo, can be read in Judge Dredd Megazine 231-233.
In the tenth chapter of Junji Ito’s horror manga, Uzumaki, a sudden surge in the mosquito population (flying in drowsy, spiraling patters) causes ravenous swarms to descend upon the pregnant women of Japan. As the victims recover at the Kurôzu-cho hospital, columns of male mosquitoes hang outside, ominously waiting to mate. Inside, the wounded women develop an appetite for the blood of their doting orderlies.
An alien mosquito introduced in 1990 as an enemy/ally of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Screwloose made his television debut alongside vampire bat cohort, Wingnut, in season five’s Zack and the Alien Invaders. There, the duo hatched a plan to brainwash children by unleashing robotic cockroaches at a military academy. Though Screwloose only served to appear in a single episode, followers of the Archie Comics series will remember his role in the Mighty Mutanimals, a short-lived, eco-friendly spinoff showcasing the franchise’s wider action figure range.
Screwloose’s final appearance in the book showed the character, alongside Wingnut and the other Mutanimals – (though minus the voodoo-spawned alligator, Leatherhead, interestingly) burning in the fires of hell — a move convincing former Archie editor, Victor Gorelick – to cancel the TMNT comic book, as well.
The unholy fusion of mosquito and professional jet pilot, “Mega Mutant” Needlenose served as an ally to the Turtles so large he could be ridden like a Pegasus. Though very little information has been provided on the character’s origins (he was created by Krang, though “bugnapped” by Donatello), it’s clear the formerly human tongue of Needlenose has since mutated into an ejector seat.
Henchman to Hordak, the “evil, energy-draining insectoid” Mosquitor never made it to the Masters of the Universe or She-Ra animated series, but could be occasionally seen firing lasers from his proboscis in the “Masters” tie-in comic from Marvel. Fortunate owners of the action figure, however, were welcomed to a mini-comic showcasing the character (he helps spawn a hologram duplicate of the Sorceress, whom he exsanguinates).
During its transformation from insect to robot, Transquito’s proboscis would invert into a stream of projectile vomit, which could be fired like a missile by pressing a growth on its head. An ancillary third transformation saw him transform into an amblypygid. For reasons that remain unclear, the figure sold so poorly, it can occasionally still be found on the shelves of some overstock retail stores across the country.
The seemingly innocuous Swamp Mosquito carried, along with various diseases, the distinction of being Magic’s first flying creature to deal added damage in the form of “poison counters” – instruments of a slow, accumulating death-by-venom offering players an alternate method to win (and lose) the game.
An antagonist in the Adventures of Flotter children’s holonovel series, Stinger, “the biggest mosquito you’ve ever seen”, met six-year old Katherine Janeway in a story where the Forest of Forever faced a crippling drought. On hearing the suggestion that she divert the river, the young Janeway flooded the entire forest, thereby causing Stinger’s egg to hatch. This is mentioned in the fifth episode of season five, “Once Upon a Time”.
In Richard Matheson’s novel, the vampire pandemic afflicting the whole of humanity is birthed by a sudden upswing in the mosquito population. Serving as carriers for a deadly strain of bacteria able to infect both living and dead hosts, it’s discovered direct sunlight and the infliction of deep wounds on the indisposed will kill the Culicidae-born disease, transforming its pestilence from an anaerobic symbiont to an aerobic parasite.
Hailing from the Florida Everglades, the monster known as Skeetera was once presumed to have been a normal mosquito before ingesting mutated Kaiju blood — adapting the size and characteristics of its monstrous host in consequence. While in combat with “Zilla”, Skeetera managed to dehydrate herself after acquiring fire breath, leading to her capture and relocation on MonsterIsland.
First in the Kamen Rider franchises’ enduring lineage of mosquito-based monster terrorists, Mosquiras proved to be a threat so powerful, it took the combined might of both the first and second Kamen Rider to defeat him –- with the latter making a dramatic return to the series just for the occasion. Together, the duo delivers Mosquiras the “Rider Double Kick” – a blow so devastatingly furious, its victims boil from within.
A cyborg-mutant with the ability to physically remove and assimilate human faces for his own (leaving his victims with featureless, fleshy heads), Camera-Mosquito was hired by the evil Doktor G to extract and kill Interpol agents hiding within the terrorist organization, Destron. He’s killed midair by Kamen Rider V3’s “Body Attack” while attempting to escape with incriminating microfilm.
An agent of terrorist organization Black Satan, the child-snatching, rapier-wielding Bubunga spearheaded a bizarre plot to abduct children who had recently won bags of seahorse eggs at an orienteering competition.
A mosquito monster from Borneo whose right arm is a smallpox-spraying syringe, Madarakajin hatched a scheme to unleash poison gas at an amusement park, but was defeated by Kamen Rider Skyrider.
An enemy of Kamen Rider Kabuto, Culex Worm was a “master of the dark cooking arts”, capable of manipulating people’s emotions with his impressive culinary skills. Having obtained a magic knife, he intended to take over the world with his delicious cooking, but was killed by a lethal “Rider Kick” from Kabuto.
A mouth-themed mosquito monster of Lothor’s, Sucker’s bite transforms his victims into human/insect hybrids – an act he successfully commits upon the Green Ranger. In episode eighteen of the series, Sucker is the first to be killed by the Samurai Storm Megazord, and shatters into pieces.
In an episode of Underdog, Colonel McBragg recounts the time he battled a giant mosquito. After having his cabin carried away by the beast, McBragg saws off the insect’s stinger, upsetting its balance and spiraling it back towards the Earth. Interestingly, something very similar happens in 1995’s Mosquito.
This mosquito, played by Mitch Markowitz – the future screenwriter of Good Morning, Vietnam (!) – appeared in every episode of the Canadian children’s horror series to deliver an insect-themed joke (usually involving phlebotomy), just before feeding on the giant human foot behind him. His arrival is marked by a kazoo-performed rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee.
Of course, it was a mosquito trapped in amber that provided John Hammond the bloody DNA necessary to manufacture his island of cloned dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
Whether this was a mistake or an in-joke remains to be seen.
In a memorably disturbing moment from the Fox Kids’ animated series, the gregarious Eek leads a band of pirates to a deadly island in search of lost treasure, guarded by a covetous monster. As they make their way through the jungle, a particularly robust pirate boasts of his immunity to insect bites, only to have a large mosquito inhale the totality of his bodily fluids through the top of his cranium.
In the second issue of the Gold Key comic book series, a giant mosquito terrorizes the surface of the planet Syltron. Piloting the spacemobile, Tim and Tam Robinson aim two concussive blasts at the creature’s head, delivering a killing blow by ramming full speed into the poor thing’s clypeus. Left to die on the alien planet’s surface, the native Syltrons finish it off with a lethal injection of “death serum”.
Fortunately for everyone, LEGO has recently entered the fray with the latest expansion in its "space" range. The Galaxy Squad takes arms against "Alien Mosquitoids", a race of cocoon-spewing warlords from the Planet Selva Galaxy, intent on remaking the universe into a gigantic, swampy hive.
Syfy's contribution to the genre, 2005's Mansquito, spun the tale of Dr. Jennifer Allen — an immunologist seeking to cure a deadly insect-born disease called the Gillian Virus. Dr. Allen's catastrophic mistake comes in the form of Ray, a convict recruited to participate in her experiments against the virus with radiation therapy.
An aspiring superhero named Mosquito Man attempted to convince Stan Lee he was a suitable successor to the Spider-Man legacy, but Stan was not impressed. From Stan Lee Meets the Amazing Spider-Man #1.
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