- Insects with a pupal stage
- undergo four-stage metamorphosis:
- egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
- Adults breed and lay eggs,
- renewing the cycle.
- Self-fertilization or autogamy
- is rare but has been observed
- in sea sponges, tapeworms,
- aphids, gall wasps,
- and other a few others.
- Our autogamous mosquito larva
- are unique in the insect kingdom
- in producing, when under stress,
- their own eggs, which hatch
- into autogamous mosquito larva.
- This two-stage metamorphosis
- means that they make excellent
- live fish feed. As a fish swallows,
- the larva fertilizes eggs that survive
- even though the larva dies.
- Essentially, autogamous larva
- spend their brief lives
- foraging and fattening up
- for the fish that eat them.