A photo from open sources
Mosquitoes are an extremely common type of insect. Find them can be anywhere in the world, except Antarctica.
The distant ancestors of today’s mosquitoes lived in the forests and ate blood their inhabitants. However, at some point, some of them switched to people and began to live in human homes. So these insects have been very successful in terms of evolution, change your taste preferences.
Man and his lifestyle are ideal for mosquitoes. In our housing there is always water, and therefore the conditions for the reproduction of insects. Our body is not covered with hair, which makes it difficult for mosquitoes to access “feeding trough”. Finally, people live collectively, and therefore always There is a large “selection of dishes.”
The question arises: why did some mosquitoes prefer us? Genetics and … the Kenyan village of Rabai helped to figure this out. Last long been interested in scientists, since here at a distance of several hundreds of meters side by side two different types of mosquitoes. This is aedes aegypti formosus, or black mosquitoes, as well as Aedes aegypti aegypti, or mosquitoes are brown. Blacks live in forests and drink the blood of wild animals, browns use jugs for breeding with water and feed on human blood.
When these species were crossed, scientists found the olfactory gene receptor in the mosquito Or4, responsible for taste preferences. Thanks a mosquito reacts to sulkato smell.
However, when sulfate was applied to the skin of guinea pigs, mosquitoes did not even think of biting animals. So the search a substance that attracts blood-sucking insects to people, goes on. Scientists hope that his discovery will help create a drug that effectively protects people from mosquitoes.
A photo from open sources
Water Insects
