The appearance of mosquitoes in the apartment - sleepless nights. Neighborhood with these insects cannot be pleasant, because they bite, and besides, they are carriers of infectious diseases. It turns out that we know very little about them, and yet they are one of the components of the evolutionary chain, and, therefore, without their existence, the development of other natural links is impossible.
Description of insects
What does a mosquito look like? A mosquito under a microscope is not at all like the small insect that we are used to seeing on our bodies. If in the apartment they can still be seen on the wall, light curtains, then on the street they are perfectly disguised and imperceptibly attack the “victim”.
The body of the insect, depending on the type of go, may be yellow, gray or brown. Its length can vary from one to one and a half centimeters. Considering the structure of an adult mosquito, its body can be conditionally divided into such components as the head, thoracic segment, abdomen, long legs with claws, and wings.
Due to the special structure of the thoracic region, insects form a long neck.
At the ends of the paws of the legs there are claws, due to which the mosquito can be held on various horizontal and vertical, as well as inverted surfaces.
mosquito legs
The wings of insects are composed of many scales, and there is a fringe on their back side. Due to the longitudinal and transverse veins, they are tough and hardy. The number of oscillations of insect wings per second is more than one thousand times!
No less interesting is the structure of his head. On it are the eyes of a mosquito, sensitive antennas. In addition, the mosquito's oral apparatus is located precisely within the head and is a combination of the upper and lower lips, two jaws and sharp needles. The head of the mosquito is a kind of center responsible for finding a source of food.
If insects have lips and jaws, do mosquitoes have teeth? It turns out that yes, and the insect uses them when biting the chosen “victim”. Mosquitoes are still those critters, their jaws are provided with fifty teeth, with which they can successfully hook on tissues if they want to get enough. The teeth of the insect are a kind of fixator that allows you to use the rest of the elements of the oral apparatus - the needles and proboscis of a hungry mosquito.
The genital organs of insects are located in the abdomen - in the last two of the ten segments, the anus is also located here. The structure of the male genital organs is much more complicated than that of the female. The abdomen, when the insect is saturated, carrying eggs, obesity (even this happens), tends to increase in size due to the pleural membranes.
The male mosquito is smaller than the female. The weight of a hungry mosquito is a little over one milligram, a satiated adult insect is three milligrams. 
Habitat Features
Mosquitoes are attracted, of course, by the moist environment in which they breed. Their large accumulation is observed near reservoirs, rivers, the sea, in wooded and wetlands, in meadows with tall grass. Within a multi-storey building, favorable conditions for their reproduction are created in basements - damp and unheated. Private houses are also not protected from being next to them; insects breed near pools, wells, fountains, and flower beds.
Even containers with collected water and ordinary puddles are a favorable factor for increasing their population.
They are very thermophilic, but too high a temperature is not favorable for their reproduction. Especially large concentrations of them are recorded in regions with a temperate continental climate.
They live everywhere except Antarctica.
Mosquito "singing"
No need to remind once again what sound a mosquito makes. Of course, when they fly, a nasty annoying squeak comes to the ears of a person. Where is it distributed from? From the mouth of an insect? By no means, no! It is the high frequency of vibrations of the mosquito's wings that is the very instrument that contributes to making a squeak, which subsides at those moments when the insect simply sits on the "victim" or rests on other objects of its habitat, folding its wings.
It often seems that in the room, instead of one or two insects, there is a whole swarm, this squeak is so loud that it can cause insomnia in people.
Population reproduction
The female mosquito is the successor of the genus, she is responsible for carrying and hatching eggs. Male mosquitoes are only responsible for fertilizing the female.
Life cycle
A mosquito can hatch up to one hundred and fifty eggs in one go. In a week, larvae hatch from them, which go through four stages of development in a month and transform into a pupa, from which, after five days, an adult insect is formed.
An interesting fact is that insects are ready to mate immediately after leaving the pupae. For fertilization, males choose more mature females.
Lifespan
How long does a mosquito live? Often, the lifespan of a mosquito depends on the conditions of its habitat. The answer to this question will always be different.
How long do mosquitoes live in an apartment? Until the moment of their destruction with the help of special means or crackers.
The life span of a mosquito in nature is much longer. Biological studies reliably show how many days a mosquito lives. The air temperature indicator tends to fluctuate, and it is on its value that the life expectancy of an insect depends:
at + 25 ° C, it lives from 30 to 40 days;
at + 20°C - up to 60 days;
at + 15°C - up to 115 days;
at + 10°C - up to 120 days.
How do mosquitoes hibernate? After all, for example, hatched individuals in October find cold in their life expectancy.
Mosquitoes in winter can take root in people's apartments, in warm basements. Where do they winter in natural conditions? Rotten stumps, remnants of vegetation - leaves, moss, various minks and crevices where they hide help them to overwinter. You could say they are hibernating. The physiological processes in the body of a fertilized female slow down, she lays eggs with the onset of heat. And males die with the onset of cold weather for lack of a source of nutrition - nectar.
Food
What do mosquito insects eat? The larvae have the opportunity to feed on particles of vegetation and microorganisms in the water of the reservoir, which they pass through themselves. Adults survive on flower nectar. Then the question arises - why do mosquitoes drink the blood of humans and animals?
For bearing and laying eggs, the female needs a lot of strength, nectar does not provide her with the necessary nutrients, while blood contributes to her complete saturation. That's why mosquitoes drink blood.
It should be noted that males do not bite, only females are voracious and in the moments after fertilization. The female mosquito sucks blood in order to gain strength and survive for the possibility of further continuation of the population. If there is no source of blood nearby, then she dies after laying eggs, and her offspring is weak.
The mosquito can suck out twice its weight in blood at a time, because the stretching abdomen is adapted to increase in size.
Varieties of blood-sucking insects
In total, there are more than three thousand species of insects on Earth. Up to a hundred of their species have taken root on the territory of Russia. The most common are:
An integral part of evolution
Why, in principle, are annoying mosquitoes needed in nature? What function do they perform? These insects are a source of food for other beetles - dragonflies, swimming beetles, water striders, ticks, spiders, water bugs. Since they breed in the vicinity of water bodies, crustaceans, frogs, salamanders, various types of reptiles, and fish like to eat their larvae and adults. Mosquitoes are a source of food for river and sea birds that can stay on the water surface - gulls, terns, wild ducks and geese, phalaropes.
It is easy to guess what will happen if the mosquitoes disappear. The main source of food will disappear from the usual chain of evolutionary development of all the above individuals, which will entail a significant reduction in their number. The disappearance of one link leads to the disappearance of others ... So, "to find a common language" with mosquitoes is necessary in order to preserve the natural balance on Planet Earth.
- one of the oldest representatives of insects. Even fossil species are known. For an ordinary person, this is a small individual with a pair of wings, 6 paws and a long, sharp proboscis. But a mosquito under a microscope looks completely different and many do not even realize how mesmerizing it is. Multiple magnification allows you to examine in detail each part of the bloodsucker's body. And then an insect in a different guise opens up to the human eye.
Description of the appearance of a bloodsucker under a microscope
Those who managed to see a photo of a mosquito under a microscope unequivocally state that it looks frightening and repulsive. His body no longer looks as smooth as it seems. It is all covered with small bristles. With their help, he orients himself in space and establishes a connection with the surrounding worlds.
Most noteworthy is the head, which in photographs under a microscope looks like something alien. The first thing that catches your eye during examination is the large mosaic eyes. The structure of the visual organ under a microscope looks very interesting. This is a lot of small fragments that together make up a whole faceted eye.
No less attention is drawn to the structure of the oral apparatus. An enlarged mosquito has a developed and branched apparatus. It consists of the upper and lower lips, jaws and proboscis. Even the nose of a mosquito is not a solid needle, but several flexible tentacles. It is with their help that the bloodsucker finds a blood vessel under the skin.
Interesting!
mosquito maturation
With the help of a powerful microscope, English scientists were able to examine in detail how the bloodsucker turns from a larva into an adult. To do this, they caught a lot of insect larvae, installed a lamp and began to wait.
It goes through 3 stages of molting and at 4 it already turns into an imago. After the last molt, the worms open their sticks, wings and proboscis. It rises above the surface of the water and flies away to look for a new source of food.
An enlarged mosquito at the final stage of growing up is formed into an adult. Their small worm turns out to be a winged individual, which in a few days will have the opportunity for fertilization.
Bite in the details
To make a meal and drink blood, the insect has to work hard. To begin with, it finds the most suitable place on the body of the victim. This is usually the pulsating point where the thickness of the skin is minimal. But if the mosquito is very hungry, then it will not be too selective in choosing a bite site.
The microscope allows you to see those details that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Multiple magnification makes it possible to consider the process of the meal itself. In the laboratory, scientists managed to film how a mosquito bites under a microscope. The bloodsucker finds a blood vessel under the skin and absorbs biological material. We succeeded in doing this using the example of a mouse, but this scheme operates regardless of the object.
The detailed video shows how the proboscis of a mosquito with translational movements is trying to find a vessel under the skin. It examines skin cells that are nearby. After the mosquito rests its nose against the vessel, it pierces it and the feeding process begins.
Interesting!
Itself lasts about 1-2 minutes, but sometimes 4 minutes are allotted for a meal. The vessel search is about 3-5 seconds. However, it depends on the degree of his hunger and the actions of the victim.
The video also demonstrates how flexible and mobile a mosquito sting is. It easily bends, turns and makes other movements in search of a food source.
Thus, a mosquito under a microscope is a frightening sight, and such a study allowed scientists to reveal a lot. But perfect nature created him with all the features specifically so that he could ensure his existence. Without them, the mosquito species itself would have disappeared. And this will radically change the whole world of flora and fauna on the planet, because many fish, insects, birds, and do not underestimate these annoying insects.
TALLINN, June 8 - Sputnik. Scientists from the University of California in the United States filmed in detail the process of the absorption of human blood by a mosquito. A study on blood-sucking insects was published in the American edition of KQED.
Mosquito bites are much more dangerous to humans than any other animal bites, researchers say.
Scientists have found that the mosquito's mouth, called the proboscis, is not a single tiny "spear". It is a complex system of six thin needles, each of which pierces the skin, finds blood vessels and makes it easier for mosquitoes to absorb blood from them.
Insects have over 150 receptors on their antennae and proboscis that help them find prey or determine if there is enough nutrient water to lay eggs.
"Why do some people get bitten more than others?" asked Luckhart.
"The volatile fatty acids emitted by our skin are very different from person to person. They reflect differences between men and women, such as what we have eaten. It is not one or two, but a whole 'mixture' of signals that help insects make a choice," Luckhart explains.
However, scientists have not yet determined what specifically attracts mosquitoes most in some people. But what the researchers know for sure is that when an insect's proboscis touches human skin, one of the six needles, called a labrum, uses receptors on its tip to search for blood vessels.
"These receptors capture elements of the blood," says American University biochemist Walter Leal.
And vice versa, the elements contained in our blood, bouquets, reach the mosquito by smell, involuntarily showing him the way to the blood vessel. "Lip" only pierces the vessel and performs the function of a tube. Six needles simultaneously dig into the victim.
Two of them, the so-called maxillae or upper jaws, are equipped with many tiny needles, a kind of teeth, that penetrate the skin. Other "blades" or "drills" - mandibles - lower jaws - at this time hold the edges of the wound, preventing them from closing.
Scientists have been trying to figure out the anatomy of a mosquito bite for decades. In studying the nutritional system of these insects, they used powerful microscopes, genetic research and video recording capabilities.
When the mosquito's digestive tract fills with blood, the insect separates the red blood cells from the water in the blood, squeezing it out in the back of the body.
The sixth needle is called the hypopharynx, through which the mosquito lets saliva into the blood, containing certain substances that make the blood flow, they also cause itching after an insect bite.
"Your blood tends to coagulate immediately upon contact with air," Leal says.
Mosquito saliva also causes a person's blood vessels to dilate, blocks the immune response and lubricates the trunk, scientists explain.
The researchers concluded that some viruses originated only because of mosquitoes. This is not hard to believe, given that mosquitoes existed 200 million years before humans, the article notes.
"Because mosquitoes evolved the blood-drinking habit, some viruses followed that evolutionary path and became human-targeted viruses carried by mosquitoes," said Shannon Bennett, a microbiologist at the California Academy of Sciences.
A mosquito under a microscope looks much more complicated than it might initially seem. The piercing-sucking apparatus has a complex structure, each part performs certain functions. At one time, the female drinks about 5.2 ml of blood with her own weight of 3.2 g. Initially, she determines the place where the blood vessels are located closest to the surface, then she does it.
The structure of the oral apparatus under the microscope
In England, the insect is often referred to as the flying syringe. The mosquito's sting looks like a thin point that pierces the skin. The main weapon of the insect has a complex structure, consists of hollow, non-hollow tubes that control movement, inject saliva into the wound, suck blood. A photo of a mosquito under a microscope, its mouth apparatus is presented below.
The sting consists of:
- two stabbing tubes - maxilla;
- pairs of mandibles - mandibles;
- upper lip - labrum, lower;
- uvula - hypopharynx.
The upper shell of the proboscis of the mosquito turns away during the bite, providing the sting with free penetration under the skin of the victim. Labels are placed on the lip - they help to choose the right place, determine the location of the blood vessel, they are visible under a microscope. After the bite, the labels remain on the surface of the epidermis, do not get inside.
On two stabbing tubes - maxillas - hard horny scales are placed. There are 50 of them in total. With their help, the insect initially gnaws through the wound, and only then introduces a tube for blood absorption. Thanks to sharp teeth, the bite is carried out with lightning speed, the victim does not feel anything. The mandibles hold the skin so that the wound remains open throughout the sucking period. You can follow the process under a microscope.
After such manipulations are introduced into the vessel, the blood begins to flow into the body of the insect. Pre-mosquito injects saliva, which prevents blood from clotting, facilitates the process of feeding. The hypopharynx or uvula creates a vacuum in the tube, promotes the flow of blood from the vessel. How a mosquito bites under a microscope can be seen below.
On a note!
An enlarged mosquito looks terrifying under a microscope. His oral apparatus is not just a tube with a sharp end, but a complex system. The nose of the mosquito includes the upper, lower jaws, lips, 7 sharp needles. Each pair performs its own functions. Some of them have mosquito teeth. These are 50 pieces of keratinized scales, with which the bloodsucker gnaws through the epidermis.
The consequences of a bite
The sting of the mosquito damages the skin, through the proboscis the insect injects saliva. A special secret prevents blood from clotting, facilitates the process. The immune system instantly reacts to the ingress of a foreign secret into the blood. At the site of a mosquito bite, edema appears. If you look at the affected area under a microscope, a dot with dried blood is noticeable.
On a note!
An enlarged mosquito under a microscope is complex. Some abilities of small creatures continue to amaze scientists. For an ordinary person, in most cases, a mosquito bite is not dangerous, on its own within two days, the epidermis is completely restored in a week.
To avoid complications, eliminate unpleasant manifestations, it is recommended to treat the wound with an antiseptic and disinfect. use pharmaceutical preparations, especially alcohol, folk remedies, their own saliva. An increase in the number of bites leads to the accumulation of allergens, increasing the likelihood of an allergic reaction. In this case, antihistamine, antiallergic drugs are used.
TALLINN, June 8 - Sputnik. Scientists from the University of California in the United States filmed in detail the process of the absorption of human blood by a mosquito. A study on blood-sucking insects was published in the American edition of KQED.
Mosquito bites are much more dangerous to humans than any other animal bites, researchers say.
Scientists have found that the mosquito's mouth, called the proboscis, is not a single tiny "spear". It is a complex system of six thin needles, each of which pierces the skin, finds blood vessels and makes it easier for mosquitoes to absorb blood from them.
Insects have over 150 receptors on their antennae and proboscis that help them find prey or determine if there is enough nutrient water to lay eggs.
"Why do some people get bitten more than others?" asked Luckhart.
"The volatile fatty acids emitted by our skin are very different from person to person. They reflect differences between men and women, such as what we have eaten. It is not one or two, but a whole 'mixture' of signals that help insects make a choice," Luckhart explains.
However, scientists have not yet determined what specifically attracts mosquitoes most in some people. But what the researchers know for sure is that when an insect's proboscis touches human skin, one of the six needles, called a labrum, uses receptors on its tip to search for blood vessels.
"These receptors capture elements of the blood," says American University biochemist Walter Leal.
And vice versa, the elements contained in our blood, bouquets, reach the mosquito by smell, involuntarily showing him the way to the blood vessel. "Lip" only pierces the vessel and performs the function of a tube. Six needles simultaneously dig into the victim.
Two of them, the so-called maxillae or upper jaws, are equipped with many tiny needles, a kind of teeth, that penetrate the skin. Other "blades" or "drills" - mandibles - lower jaws - at this time hold the edges of the wound, preventing them from closing.
Scientists have been trying to figure out the anatomy of a mosquito bite for decades. In studying the nutritional system of these insects, they used powerful microscopes, genetic research and video recording capabilities.
When the mosquito's digestive tract fills with blood, the insect separates the red blood cells from the water in the blood, squeezing it out in the back of the body.
The sixth needle is called the hypopharynx, through which the mosquito lets saliva into the blood, containing certain substances that make the blood flow, they also cause itching after an insect bite.
"Your blood tends to coagulate immediately upon contact with air," Leal says.
Mosquito saliva also causes a person's blood vessels to dilate, blocks the immune response and lubricates the trunk, scientists explain.
The researchers concluded that some viruses originated only because of mosquitoes. This is not hard to believe, given that mosquitoes existed 200 million years before humans, the article notes.
"Because mosquitoes evolved the blood-drinking habit, some viruses followed that evolutionary path and became human-targeted viruses carried by mosquitoes," said Shannon Bennett, a microbiologist at the California Academy of Sciences.
