Mosca has no male form, it would be a female mosca, or a male mosca. That's probably the origin of the mistake with the article. While the gatito example is ok, there is no mosco for mosca.
But it has a male form: mosco. From which "mosquito" comes by diminutivization. No mistake in the article.
Re:The Deadliest Animal in the World
by oscardelben on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @07:59AM
(#7672707)
Depends on the language I guess? In italian we only use mosca.
Using your own dictionary:
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosquito
(Del dim. de mosco)
Outside of your country, mosco is definitely used.
That green stuff between parenthesis is the etymological origin and not a definition.
Again, i stated that earlier. They share origin, that doesn't make then mean the same.
I see mosco is definitely used, and rae dictionary has its entrance:
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=mosco
Mosco can mean, black horse or mosquito but its NOT the male gender of mosca, that's what i said.
(btw "my" dictionary is the normative spanish by the rae, that also includes south american terms)
They may understand it as "mosquito" rather than "little fly" but that is a valid literal translation, just like "gatito" is "kitten" but the literal translation would be diminutive-of-cat -> "little cat".