Linda Schneider, age 13, of Lansing, Michigan, for her question:

How long do mosquitos live?

The same ants that pestered your picnics this summer may join you again through the next six or seven summers. But you may feel somewhat comforted to know that the mosquitos that accompanied them are not likely to return. However, remember to smear your exposed skin with an assortment of crushed mint leaves or some other safe insect repellant. For as sure as the summer sun rises, swarms of next generation mosquitos will be right there to greet you.

The average mosquito has a life expectancy of merely a month. But there is a wide range of variations and a few of the pesky dive bombers just may survive through the winter. The variations depend lamely on climate conditions, plus the fact that their are some 2,000 mosquito species, each with its own particular life style. They are found from the tropics to the polar regions. And as a rule, the cold climate types tend to live longer than those of. the steamy hot jungles.

All of them are rated as amphibious insects because their life cycles are spent partly in the water and partly on land. They develop through four surprising stages. The eggs, larva and pupa states are spent in water or heavy moisture. Only the winged adult mosquito takes to the air    but not for long. In the tropics and during summer in the temperate zones, the eggs become larva and the larvae become pupae in about two weeks. Barring accidents, the winged adult can expect to die of old age after about ten days.

Succeeding generations are possible. because those ten days are crammed with busy activities. Between her bloodthirsty attacks on our flesh, the female mosquito schedules time to mate and lay perhaps a dozen batches of 50 to 200 eggs. No doubt her early departure is due to exhaustion. But no matter. Her eggs are left to launch the next generation.

The tiny eggs look like pale bullets, packed close to form a mini r&ft on a lazy pond. In a few days, they hatch into whiskery wrigglers with nasty nippers. After gorging every morsel in sight, they become tough skinned pupae, hanging, from the roof of the water. The emerging adults. try to wait for a sunny afternoon to dry their new wings.

In the tropics, generations of. mosquitos repeat this life cycle every month or so throughout the year. In our temperate zones, the last eggs of the fall wait through the winter. Others remain as larvae or pupae. Perhaps a few, a very few old ladies manage to hide from the winter and come forth to lay a batch or two of early eggs in the spring.

Cooler temperatures of the polar regions tend to slow doom the life cycle changes. There, through the long winter, masses of mosquito eggs rest under the moist mosses and arctic snows. When spring begins to davra, the life cycle is completed and the air is beclouded with flying mosquitos. Several generations crowd into the summer season and once again the final broods sleep under the winter snows.