Mosquitoes are small insects with thin legs and a long proboscis. They are often confused with mosquitoes, but there are significant differences between them. Who are mosquitoes? Where do they live? What threatens a meeting with them for a person?
Mosquitoes: description and types
According to various estimates, there are from 300 to 1000 species of mosquitoes. In this case, detailed information about them is almost never found in the public domain. They belong to the dipterous long-necked insect from the family of butterflies.
Mosquitoes are very small insects of a yellowish or gray-brown color. They have long legs, elongated oval wings, the size of which is almost equal to the length of the body. Insects are covered with small hairs and look slightly hairy. Hair grows even along the edges of the wings.
Mosquitoes have black eyes. Their nose is pulled forward and turned into a proboscis, through which they feed. Male mosquitoes are exclusively herbivorous insects. They consume nectar of flowers, plant juice and a dead pad - a sweetish juice secreted by aphids. Only females bite from them. Proboscis they pierce the skin of animals and suck out a little blood.
Places of distribution
Mosquitoes prefer regions with a hot and humid climate, so the greatest diversity of species is observed in tropical and subtropical zones. They are found in the Balkans, in Southern Europe, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North and Central Africa.
Despite this, some species live in temperate latitudes. On the North American continent, they are present in Mexico, the USA and even in Canada. In Eurasia, the upper boundary of their habitat reaches France, Mongolia, Georgia, the Caucasus, Abkhazia and Sochi.
Insects do not tolerate cold, so they are not in the Arctic and Antarctic. They are also absent in many Pacific islands, including New Zealand.
Breeding
The development of mosquitoes occurs in four stages:
The female lays eggs in a cool and humid place with access to nutrients. Most often, a temporary “home” for them is moist soil, burrows of small rodents and other insects. In laboratory conditions, excrement of birds and rabbits was an excellent environment for them. One individual lays 30-60 eggs at a time.
For the maturation and successful development of future mosquitoes, blood is needed, which a caring mother constantly brings to them. The stage of the egg lasts from 4 days to a week; these periods differ depending on the type of mosquito. At the very beginning of life, on the head of the cubs there is a special horny outgrowth designed to reveal the strong shell of the egg. It is discarded immediately after hatching.
A mosquito larva is a creature of light color similar to a tiny caterpillar. She has four stages of development, during which the appearance and size change. The transition to each new phase is accompanied by molting.
At the last stage, the larvae (in May-June) become pupae. During this period, insects do not move and do not feed. After two weeks, they become adults. This happens at about the same time, so many mosquitoes are born at once, which causes inconvenience to humans and animals.
Differences from mosquitoes
Mosquitoes are often confused with mosquitoes. Even on the Internet, information about them is often presented as representatives of the same species. This is absolutely untrue. Mosquitoes, although they belong to the two-winged long-necked insect, represent a separate family. They also have long legs and proboscis, and also feed mainly on plant juices. The main similarities end there.
Mosquitoes differ externally, thanks to light shades of color, hairy body. In size, they reach up to 3 mm, while mosquitoes grow up to 5 mm. In a calm state, the wings of the mosquitoes are slightly raised, located at an angle. In mosquitoes, on the contrary, they fold parallel to the body, completely lying along the back.
The range of mosquitoes, although it reaches the temperate zone, is still much narrower. They are thermophilic, therefore they inhabit the hot southern countries. Mosquitoes live everywhere except Antarctica. They are much faster and noisier, during the flight emit annoying buzz, squeak. Mosquitoes are bad and slow flyers, they are very quiet. In Italy, they even received the nickname, which translates as “bites silently.”
Mosquitoes, unlike mosquitoes, do not tolerate the causative agents of malaria, but they infect victims with other parasites. Before plunging into the skin with a proboscis, they make several jumps in search of a better place for a bite. Mosquitoes do not jump, but bite right away, and then crawl along the body of the owner.
Mosquito bite
On your own skin, it is better not to check what a mosquito is. The insect is one of the most dangerous in the world, as it carries pathogens of serious diseases. Technically, a mosquito does not bite, but pierces the skin and introduces special substances to anesthetize and prevent blood clotting. This gives him some time to quietly drink it and fly away.
In the best case, interaction with him ends with irritation and itching of the bite site. But along with mosquito saliva, parasites often enter the body of the animal. Insects can cause dermatitis, mosquito fever, leishmaniasis, bartonellosis, rubber ulcers and other diseases.
Mosquito fever is common in the subtropical regions of the Old World: from the southern regions of Portugal and the far north of Africa, to India and Pakistan. Leishmaniasis is found in more than 80 countries, especially in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Sudan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Peru.