Can't understand why "に" is used in "蚊に刺された" or what's the sense of this sentence


I was reading a page about passive verbs in Japanese, and I came across the
phrase: "蚊に刺された。" What intrigued me is why the particle "に" is used in this
phrase, because when I read it and try to understand the sense, I understand
it as "Bit on the mosquito". It becomes even weirder if a pronoun is used, as
in "私が蚊に刺された" ("I was bit on the mosquito").

Why does it use "に" instead of another particle that, translating, would make
more sense and it would be like "I was bitten **by** a mosquito"? I think what
confuses me is that the phrase doesn't indicate that the person was bitten
**by** the mosquito. Instead of that, it has a "に" indicating that the
location of action is the mosquito instead of the person.

Could someone explain that to me?




Little words like _by_ and に have lots of uses.

>   1. He was murdered **by his own doctor**!
>   2. She was sitting **by the tree** enjoying the sun.
>   3. I won the contest **by cheating**.
>   4. She bills **by the hour**.
>

In the first sentence, _by_ is used for the agent of a passive clause.  
In the second sentence, _by_ is used to express a location.  
In the third sentence, _by_ is used to express a way or means.  
In the fourth sentence, _by_ is used for a unit of measurement.

Although we may not realize it, little words like this have all sorts of
different uses! And the same is true for Japanese, where に is used lots of
different ways. It simply isn't accurate to say that に always indicates
location, any more than _by_ always indicates location.

**In your example, に indicates the agent of a passive clause, and that is
something it is very commonly used for that has nothing to do with location.**

Unfortunately, the little words like に and _by_ don't really match up very
well between languages, so you'll have to learn the various ways に is used in
Japanese without thinking of it as a translation of English _by_ (or _at_ ,
_to_ , _in_ , _on_ , _for_ , _with_ , etc.).




Little words like _by_ and に have lots of uses.

>   1. He was murdered **by his own doctor**!
>   2. She was sitting **by the tree** enjoying the sun.
>   3. I won the contest **by cheating**.
>   4. She bills **by the hour**.
>

In the first sentence, _by_ is used for the agent of a passive clause.  
In the second sentence, _by_ is used to express a location.  
In the third sentence, _by_ is used to express a way or means.  
In the fourth sentence, _by_ is used for a unit of measurement.

Although we may not realize it, little words like this have all sorts of
different uses! And the same is true for Japanese, where に is used lots of
different ways. It simply isn't accurate to say that に always indicates
location, any more than _by_ always indicates location.

**In your example, に indicates the agent of a passive clause, and that is
something it is very commonly used for that has nothing to do with location.**

Unfortunately, the little words like に and _by_ don't really match up very
well between languages, so you'll have to learn the various ways に is used in
Japanese without thinking of it as a translation of English _by_ (or _at_ ,
_to_ , _in_ , _on_ , _for_ , _with_ , etc.).

