A ranger supervisor at Everglades National Park figures he has a species that would be a shoo-in to win a national contest to determine the nation's biggest mosquito.
"We get this one species; it's got huge legs, black and gold legs, and they are frightening," Jay Robinson said. "It's about twice as big as other mosquitoes."But there's a problem.
It's impossible to enter one of the insects in a contest being conducted by Austerica-Griffith Greenhouses of Plymouth, Fla., because all wildlife in the park - including mosquitoes - are protected.
It's illegal to kill mosquitoes, catch them or shoo them away. In fact, Robinson said with a straight face, that it's even illegal to let them bite you, because that would be feeding them. That's not allowed in a national park, either.
"You can't do anything but run from them," he said.
The contest is a gimmick to promote the central Florida greenhouse's anti-mosquito plant.