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| Description: The larvae of some mosquitoes in the genus Aedes live in saltwater. These larvae meet the challenge of a high-salinity environment in ways analogous to those used by marine bony fish. Like marine bony fish, saltwater mosquitoes are hypoosmotic to the surrounding environment, to which they lose water. Saltwater mosquitoes also make up this water loss by drinking large amounts of seawater, up to 130% to 240% of body volume per day. This would even impress a camel! While this prodigious drinking solves the problem of water loss, it imports another: large quantities of salts that must be eliminated. Saltwater mosquitoes secrete these salts into the urine using specialized cells that line the posterior rectum. Here, saltwater mosquitoes do something that marine bony fish cannot. They excrete a urine that is hyperosmotic to their body fluids, which reduces water loss through the urine. The parallels in water and salt regulation by marine bony fish and saltwater mosquitoes are outlined in the figure above.
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