What does a mosquito eat? Overview of insect preferences by sex and stage of development

Mosquitoes are known to people as bloodsuckers, annoying in the warm season. Their bites are painful, and a subtle buzzing above the ear can unbalance even the calmest person. But the list of what the mosquito eats does not only consist of blood. Some of the individuals are very friendly to humans.

Insect description

Mosquitoes are a large family of insects, which includes 3,500 described species. They live all over the world with the exception of Antarctica: wherever there is a person whose blood is necessary for procreation. But for successful life, they also need moisture and heat, so most of the family are settled in the tropics. In the temperate zone, mosquitoes are kept near ponds, in river valleys, shady forests and swamps.

Sugar-containing liquids obtained from plant sap are what mosquitoes eat in the swamp and in the forest. But to lay eggs, from which then emerge larvae and pupae, the female insect needs the blood of warm-blooded animals, less often reptiles. They give preference, of course, to human blood, for which they are unloved by people. Some of it is used in the body not only to reproduce offspring, but also to feed the female.

How is the mouthpart of a mosquito?

The mouth apparatus, which provides nutrition to the mosquito, is a piercing-sucking type. It has a rather complex structure and is hidden in the lower lip of the insect, which has the shape of a proboscis tube. Sharp stilettos of jaws are located in it.

When bitten, mosquitoes carry dangerous infections: malaria, yellow fever, West Nile fever, tularemia.

When an insect lands on a prey, it lowers the proboscis into the skin to the depth of the capillaries. Cutting a hole, a mosquito easily sucks blood.

Mosquito feeding

The basis of nutrition is sugar of plant origin. More rare types of food in mosquitoes are exofloral nectar and honey dew. Female mosquitoes combine plant food and blood, while males eat only nectar of flowers and plant juices.

Feeding females

“Bloodlust” in females is explained by the fact that they need animal protein to form eggs after mating. For this reason, they attack humans and mammals, and some species bite birds and reptiles.

While biting the skin, a saliva containing anticoagulants is simultaneously introduced into the microscopic hole - they prevent blood coagulation and, therefore, its thickening. Therefore, liquid blood is easily absorbed by a female mosquito through its long proboscis. The preferred time for mosquito hunting is evening and night hours, when there is no scorching sun.

In saliva, there are substances that cause an allergic reaction in humans. For this reason, the bite site sometimes swells and reddens, and severe itching appears on the affected area. The use of antihistamines will help relieve unpleasant symptoms.

How do they choose a victim?

Despite their small size, mosquitoes possess excellently developed sensory organs.Across the entire surface of the body, there are receptors capable of recognizing a person at a distance of 40-50 m. The characteristics of the smell that an insect captures are a fundamental criterion in choosing a victim and a sign of the start of an attack.

Most olfactory mosquito receptors are tuned to recognize substances present in the blood and sweat of a person or animal. The Anopheles gambiae species, which carries the most dangerous malaria, almost always selects only people as a source of food, although observations made by scientists have shown that in the absence of an available alternative, the female will ultimately attack any victim because she urgently needs protein food.

On mosquito antennas, 72 different types of receptors are located.

When searching for a blood source, the female is guided by:

1. The amount of carbon dioxide. This compound attracts insects because it is produced by humans and animals by respiration. Together with it, a person exhales a whole list of other chemicals: octenol and various acids. Mosquitoes, thanks to their sensitive receptors, painstakingly distinguish between such a composition and analyze it, choosing the most preferred victim. So, in an adult, a larger volume of substances leaves the respiratory tract, so they are bitten more often than young children. In the "list of preferences" of bloodsuckers and pregnant victims, in which the ratio of exhaled substances changes when expecting a baby.
   
2. Body odour. It depends on the colonies of bacteria that live in the vicinity of the genital glands. Sweat, like a biological fluid, has an unpleasant odor for humans, but is very attractive to mosquitoes. Therefore, a person who has been engaged in hard work for a long time will be attacked faster than the soul who has just left.
3. Secretions of the skin. Mosquitoes well capture the substances contained in them, and rush to their prey.
4. Blood type. According to the results of the research, mosquitoes are “to their liking” the first group, and they attack people least often from the second.
5. Lactic acid. It is released along with perspiration and exhaled carbon dioxide.

There are other parameters by which bloodsuckers choose a victim. Among them are the body temperature of a person, the movements he makes, and even the color of his clothes. But it is the aroma of man and the composition of the biological fluids secreted by them that play a key role.

Male nutrition

What the male mosquitoes eat makes them completely harmless, because they have been searching for plant-based foods all their lives. The substances necessary for their short life accumulate in their body during their stay in the larval stage. Therefore, in their oral apparatus there are no cutting elements as unnecessary.

Mosquito larvae and pupae

During its second and third stages of development - larvae and pupae - the mosquito is constantly in the water. For nutrition, they use small organic particles and microorganisms. This is a time of intense nutrition, when the larvae store nutrients. As a result, from the moment they exit the egg and turn into a pupa, their body volume increases 500 times.

The nutrition of mosquitoes is much more interesting and diverse than most people imagine this process. Nature has thought through everything to the smallest detail: a complex system of olfactory receptors, the oral apparatus, and features of insect behavior. All this ensures the enviable fertility of the family, the survival of the population and its resistance to adverse environmental conditions.