Meaning

noun malaria mosquitoes; distinguished by the adult's head-downward stance and absence of breathing tubes in the larvae

originBorrowed from taxonomic name Anopheles (“genus of mosquitoes”), coined by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen (1764–1845), from Ancient Greek ἀνωφελής (anōphelḗs, “unprofitable, useless; hurtful, prejudicial”), from ἀν- (an-) (a variant of ᾰ̓- (ă-, prefix forming terms having senses opposite to stems or terms to which it is attached)) + ὄφελος (óphelos, “advantage, benefit, good”)…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0