Wildlife: harmless male mosquitoes and their "bloody" girlfriends

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Needless to remind you that people do not have any special love for nasty and annoying insects. Who are these annoying creatures? These, friends, are female and male mosquitoes. But meanwhile they are quite interesting creatures! Why? Read our article and find out!

The life of a mosquito

These insects spend their youth in water, and their maturity in the air. It all starts with a larva. Females lay very small eggs in one place or another with stagnant water. Then larvae emerge from the eggs, very similar to worms. To eat, they need to strain a whole liter of water through themselves in a day! At the same time, the larva breathes through a special tube located on its tail and sticking out above the water. Then it pupates, after which it turns into an adult winged insect (imago). This is a fully formed mosquito. Its thin body is supported by even thinner but long legs. A pair of graceful antennae and a long proboscis are visible on the mosquito's head.

Reproduction period

There are times when these insects begin to multiply at the speed of light. An incredible number of mosquitoes form a huge flock circling in the air. Outwardly, it becomes like columns of smoke. In fact, it is male mosquitoes that form their natural swarm. Their similar behavior indicates the beginning of the mating season. The fact is that the males are waiting for their "brides". As a rule, this happens outside the city. Any female mosquito is aware of current events and flies to mate with a male.

Which of them is a bloodsucker?

Each of us felt on ourselves how these insects bite. Interestingly, only females do this. Male mosquitoes have nothing to do with bloodletting. They are vegetarians and find their pleasure in flower nectars. If the females during the breeding season can not stock up on the right amount of blood, then they will reproduce only a small laying of testicles. Their offspring will be very small.

By the way, not all mosquitoes are bloodthirsty creatures. Today, there are only about 120 species of bloodsuckers around the world, among them the malarial mosquito. It is very similar to another species - peepers, which are safe for humans. How to distinguish them - we will tell further.

Learning to distinguish dangerous from safe

Peeper Mosquito

This is the most common Russian mosquito. They nicknamed him so for the piercing sound that irritates everyone and everything. Such "singing" is reproduced by the male Pisk mosquito with the help of two different "instruments". Low frequencies are due to the vibration of their wings, and high squeaky"melodies" - the merit of special drums located next to the openings of the breathing tubes.

Malaria mosquito

This type of bloodsucker has gotten quite a bad reputation. He is very similar to a piskun, but differs from him in his "dark" mission. Malarial mosquitoes are carriers of a dangerous disease - malaria (popularly - fever). Their larvae (just like the peeper) live only in stagnant waters. Adult insect imago lives on different plants.

Attention! The main difference between squeakers and malarials lies in their landing: the former are located directly on some kind of support, and the latter are at an angle to the surface, that is, they lift their back up.