Interesting facts about mosquitoes, or why respect a bloodsucker

At first glance, a mosquito is an ordinary insect that is of no use. He prevents us from sleeping at night, bothering with his thin squeak and painful bites. However, this pest is not as simple as it seems. The mere fact that the life of a mosquito originates about 40 million years ago is amazing! And this is only the first chapter of his amazing story. We have collected the most interesting facts about mosquitoes, which will allow you to slightly open the veil of secrecy and shed light on the mystery of the existence of this seemingly nondescript insect.

Beginning of life

First, find out where mosquitoes come from. These small, ubiquitous insects emerge from eggs that females carefully lay on the surface of the water. The masonry immediately sinks to the bottom and after a few weeks the eggs turn into pupae, quite adapted to exist in the aquatic environment.

After a while, the formation of all organs in a small pupa ends, after which it floats to the surface of the reservoir, the cocoon opens and an adult emerges from it.

Miracles of body structure

The exact mass of a mosquito is difficult to determine, since in many ways its value is determined by the amount of food eaten. But nevertheless average indicators exist:

• a hungry insect weighs no more than 2 mg;
• the weight of the well-fed can reach 3 to 5 mg.

Mosquito paws - what is special?

Many are interested in the question of how many paws a mosquito has. He has three pairs of legs, however, like most insects on our planet. Each foot consists of five segments, and the last one necessarily has suction cups, which are developed differently for each particular species.

However, not the number of legs is of interest, but the very suckers that allow the mosquito to calmly hold its body on vertical surfaces.

Oral apparatus

The mouthpart of the mosquito is of no less interest. It consists of two pairs of jaws and two lips - the upper and lower. The lips of this insect are slightly elongated and, having such a structure, resemble a gutter. If you look inside it, you can find long needles, which are jaws.

So, these insects have jaws, lips, and even a tongue that conducts saliva. And here a reasonable question arises - do mosquitoes have teeth. And what is surprising is. They are very small, and their number reaches 50 pieces. It is thanks to them that a bloodsucker can pierce the skin.

What are wings - the ability to fly or ... sing?

Another amazing feature of these insects is the ability to squeak in the absence of a voice. So why does a mosquito squeak? In fact, a squeak is not the result of the work of the vocal cords, but the sound that it makes with its wings.

On a note! Other insects are also able to generate characteristic sounds using only their wings. And most of them make a buzz - flies, bees, bumblebees, wasps, etc.!

And why the mosquito does not buzz, but it squeaks? It's all about size. His wings, like himself, are very small and also quite thin and narrow.Each flap of the wing merges with the sound of the next flap, generating a high-frequency sound that our ear perceives as a squeak. How many strokes per second does a mosquito do? Their frequency is incredibly high and is about 600 times in one second!

Some interesting facts about mosquito squeaking:

• this sound helps females attract males during mating;
• mosquitoes hear not a squeak, but vibrations of sound that they pick up with a mustache;
• in females, the squeak is slightly thinner than in males;
• the squeak of young females differs from the sound of adults, and it is precisely by these differences that the male chooses a pair for himself - a more mature female.

Nutrition - who bites, why, whom and why

But who bites, a male mosquito or a female? Only female individuals give us discomfort, regardless of what type they belong to. And they do not care who they bite - a person or an animal. The main thing is that it is blood that flows in the veins of the victim.

However, there are amazing features here. Being notorious vampires, female mosquitoes are capable of becoming “vegetarians” for some time.

On a note! Vegetarianism is a necessary measure and females resort to it only with a prolonged absence of a blood source!

What do mosquitoes eat other than blood? They change their protein menu to carbohydrate and eat floral nectar, plant juice and pollen. By the way, for males such a diet is lifelong and they feel great at the same time. But for females, such food is not the most suitable, since during the period of vegetarianism they lose their ability to lay eggs.

On a note! Some types of mosquitoes they don’t eat anything at all. For example, mosquito bells, which are easy to recognize by twitching of the legs when they are sitting. Such individuals do not live very long - their life expectancy is no more than a week, often only three days!

Having examined the features of the diet, it becomes clear why mosquitoes drink blood. The answer here is obvious - to live and be the successors of the clan. Therefore, the cycle of egg laying will depend on the possibility of blood consumption. One mosquito clutch is from 30 to 150 eggs, and the female produces offspring every two to three days!

Victim selection

Why mosquitoes do not bite everyone? After all, it is known that these insects choose a prey for themselves, but by what principle? There are several suggestions.

1. Blood type - these bloodsuckers are interested in the protein contained in the blood of a certain group, namely the first. Next in popularity are the carriers of the third group, but the second for them is not so attractive.
   

   On a note! An insect learns about a blood type by a signal that a person sends through his own skin, and about 85% of such people!

2. The smell of carbon dioxide that a person exhales is attractive to a bloodsucker. And the more carbon dioxide the victim produces and more often breathing occurs, the more likely the bloodsucker attacks. And his mosquito feels at a distance of 50 m!
   

   On a note! For this reason, flying vampires often bite children!

3. Metabolism plays an important role in choosing a tidbit. The faster metabolic processes occur, the higher the blood temperature and the more intense the smell of uric and lactic acids, as well as ammonia and sweat, which are especially attractive for small bloodsuckers.
4. Bacteria on the human body are also able to attract insects. At the same time, bloodsuckers will bite only in those areas where these bacteria are especially concentrated, and their complete absence for bloodsuckers is absolutely not attractive.
5. The smell of alcohol can turn a person into an attractive object for this parasite. Ethanol not only attracts mosquitoes, but also increases body temperature and enhances perspiration, and this, as we explained earlier, also attracts an insect.
6. Women during pregnancy are also at risk and, according to studies, deserve the attention of blood-sucking insects twice as often.And this is due to the fact that their body temperature is higher and they exhale carbon dioxide by 21% more.

And what about in the winter?

Mosquitoes are most active in the summer, especially if it turned out to be wet. In autumn, their numbers become noticeably smaller, and by winter they completely disappear from sight. And where are mosquitoes wintering and how do they endure this time of year?

In fact, worrying about small bloodsuckers is not worth it, as they are able to calmly winter, and at each stage of their development. And eggs, and pupae, and larvae, and adults in the cold months retain their full viability. They equip their nests in secluded places in which frost and freezing wind will not penetrate. These places are:

• hollow trees;
• cavities under the bark;
• burrows of animals;
• dry caked grass;
• cracks in the houses;
• places under the stones.

And if you're lucky, then mosquitoes in the winter can settle in special conditions. These include places created by man, for example, cellars, cellars, vegetable stores, farm buildings and, in fact, apartments and private houses. In the latter case, insects do not even violate their usual diet, continuing to feed on the blood of people and animals.

On a note! Some tropical species can survive the winter under the ice, and with the advent of the warm season they “thaw” and rise into the air with a multimillion-dollar blood-sucking cloud. For this reason, spring and summer are especially difficult times for the inhabitants of the tundra!

In temperate and northern climates, little vampires endure winter in a state of diapause or, in other words, hibernate. At this time, insects do not develop and do not breed, all physiological processes decrease, as does the level of metabolism, morphogenetic processes are suspended.

Where to rest from mosquitoes?

Considering the habitat of annoying bloodsuckers, it can be assumed that they live only near water bodies, and therefore a quite reasonable question arises - are there mosquitoes in the mountains. As observations show, these insects exist wherever a person is, since it is he who is the main source of food for them. Therefore, a break from these bloodsuckers will not work even in the mountains.

Although in fairness it should be noted that for normal life they need certain conditions:

• if the thermometer drops below + 12 ° C, mosquitoes will not be able to fly or bite;
• at temperatures above + 28 ° C they become noticeably less active;
• these bloodsuckers feel most comfortable at a temperature of + 16 ° C and an air humidity of 80 ... 90%.

The answer to the question - to what floor mosquitoes fly to will be disappointing. In search of an open window, behind which a potential victim is hiding, they are able to rise to an impressive height. They can parasitize on the fifth, ninth, and even on the fourteenth floor. Although in the latter case, their number will be noticeably reduced, since birds fly for that height, for which insects serve as the basis of the diet.

Who is the biggest?

The largest mosquito in the world is karamor. This is a real giant, who is the largest representative of his family. He lives in a temperate or humid climate, preferring forests and other tree plantings, near which swamps or other water bodies must be located.

The larvae of karamora is a real scourge of agriculture. Giant babies eat living plants and therefore are able to destroy even large plantations. But adults feed on nectar, and in some cases they can do without food for a long time.

The dimensions of the caramel are impressive - its length can reach 6-10 cm! But at the same time, the main part of the body is made up of long legs, and the body itself is quite small. When meeting this giant can scare, but for a person it poses no danger.

Mosquitoes are useful!

It would seem, what can be the use of mosquitoes? They only fly and bite, while also suffering some diseases. But in fact, these insects are unique creatures of nature, according to the laws of which nothing can be just like that.

• Firstly, a mosquito is food for fish, birds, other large insects, newts and many other species of animals, and therefore they are the stability of the food cycle.
• Secondly, these ubiquitous insects occupy far from the last place in the ecological balance, since after becoming an adult insect they remove important trace elements from water bodies and enrich the soil after their death.
• Thirdly, males, feeding on nectar, contribute to the pollination of plants, spreading pollen on their legs.
• Fourth, a mosquito, just eating blood, supplies it with anticoagulants that reduce coagulation, and this is useful for the category of people suffering from diseases associated with high platelet counts.

And even if scientific facts and a valid argument regarding the benefits of mosquitoes are not discovered, you know enough that such a simple and sometimes annoying mosquito deserves your respect.