Pesky Mosquitoes

Today's topic is on a pesky little buzzing creature that suck ur blood - the mosquito!

Mosquito is a spanish word which means 'little fly' and its use dates back to 1583.

Perhaps most of you already know that only female mosquitoes suck blood, male ones don't. Thus, only the female mosquito has mouth parts suited for that purpose. But why is it only female mosquitoes bite other animals for blood?

Well, mosquitoes don't suck blood for food. Their food is actually the nectar of plants. Instead, their reason for sucking blood is because they need the protein that can be found in blood to lay their eggs.

For the past few days, I've had access to a lab equipped with a microscope. Since this lab also happen to have plenty of mosquitoes, it was easy to obtain a mosquito for observation. A friend asked, which one is the mouth? Unfortunately, I couldn't tell. Nonetheless, here are some photos of parts of the pesky little thing for your viewing pleasures:



The wing~


The feelers~

Actually, the pictures are rather pretty aren't they? As for the mouth, since I cant find it using the microscope, I went to look for a photo online.

This, my friends, is what a mosquito's mouth looks like:


note: this is a false color image taken by Kevin Mackenzie using a SEM .

Shocking? My immediate reaction to the photo was to exclaim "OMG. IT HAS A TONGUE!!!!" (Well, it actually isn't really a tongue. But it sure looks like it right?)

If you are interested to know how the mosquito sucks blood, click here.

By the way, I realised this post doesnt have much information in it... But then again, I just wanted to show you readers that picture I found of the mosquito mouth because it grossed me out. =p (hope you people still liked the post despite the lower standards. *sheepish smile*)