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. At the same time, detailed information about them is practically not found in the public domain. They belong to the two-winged long-whiskered insects from the butterfly family.
Mosquitoes are very small insects that are yellowish or grey-brown in 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 shaggy. The hairs even grow along the edges of the wings.
Mosquitoes have black eyes. Their nose is strongly extended forward and turned into a proboscis, with which they feed. Male mosquitoes are exclusively herbivorous insects. They consume flower nectar, plant sap, and aphids, a sweetish juice secreted by aphids. Only females bite them. With their proboscis, they pierce the skin of animals and suck out some blood.
Distribution locations
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, 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 Canada. In Eurasia, the upper limit of their habitat reaches France, Mongolia, Georgia, the Caucasus, Abkhazia and Sochi.
Insects do not tolerate cold well, so they are not in the Arctic and Antarctic. They are also absent from many Pacific islands, including New Zealand.
Reproduction
Mosquitoes develop in four stages:
- egg;
- larva;
- chrysalis;
- imago.
The female lays her 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, the 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 is constantly brought to them by a caring mother. The egg stage lasts from 4 days to a week, these terms differ depending on the type of mosquitoes. At the very beginning of life, there is a special horny outgrowth on the head of the cubs, designed to open the strong shell of the egg. It drops right awayafter hatching.
A mosquito larva is a light-colored creature that looks like 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 a molt.
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 turn into 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 false. Mosquitoes, although they belong to two-winged long-whiskered insects, represent a separate family. They also have long legs and a proboscis, and also feed mainly on plant juices. This is where the main similarities end.
Mosquitoes differ in appearance, 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 mosquitoes are slightly raised, located at an angle. In mosquitoes, on the contrary, they fold parallel to the body, lying completely along the back.
The range of mosquitoes, although it reaches the temperate zone, is still much narrower. They are thermophilic, therefore they inhabit hot southern countries. Mosquitoes live everywhere except Antarctica. They are much faster and noisier duringflight emit an annoying buzz, squeak. Mosquitoes are bad and slow flyers, they are very quiet. In Italy, they even got a nickname, which translates as “bites silently.”
Mosquitoes, unlike mosquitoes, do not carry malaria pathogens, but infect victims with other parasites. Before plunging into the skin with their proboscis, they make several jumps in search of the best place to bite. Mosquitoes do not jump, but bite immediately, and then crawl over the host's body.
Mosquito bite
It's better not to check on your own skin what a mosquito is. The insect is one of the most dangerous in the world, as it carries pathogens of serious diseases. Technically, the mosquito does not bite, but pierces the skin and injects special substances to anesthetize and prevent blood clotting. This gives him some time to quietly drink it and fly away.
At best, interaction with him ends with irritation and itching of the bite site. But along with the saliva of a mosquito, parasites often enter the animal's body. Insects can cause dermatitis, mosquito fever, leishmaniasis, bartonellosis, rubber ulcer 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 occurs in more than 80 countries around the world, especially in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Sudan, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and Peru.
