I would very much like that after reading this article the reader should have a good attitude to the whole mosquito genus, including the mosquito-dwarf. After all, out of thirty-two mosquito families only in four there are species sucking blood. They also formed such a bad name for mosquitoes.
A resident of wet forest glades and meadow meadows, a mosquito-long-legged goose is only a very frightening and large insect. But in reality, his food is exclusively nectar and decaying plant remains, so he has nothing to do with dangerous malarial and blood-sucking mosquito species.
Long-legged in the old days in Russia were called caramors. Their Latin name is Tipulidae. These are insects belonging to the order of the Diptera and the suborder of the long-bred. Most often, this is a huge mosquito up to forty millimeters in size, but there are many long-legged legs in the nature, medium in size, and they all have long legs. Depending on the habitat, the dwarf mosquito can have a grayish, yellowish-green, brownish color. Of the 1,500 species of these insects, there are four hundred species on the territory of Russia and the CIS countries.
High humidity is the main condition for the development of these insects. Adult individuals lay eggs in mossy ground or wood, sometimes directly into the water. Larvae are marshy in color, in tone with the habitat. As a food for them are decaying plant remains, root crops of forest and garden crops. The first stage of development of the larva occurs in the upper soil layer or in decayed stumps and branches of trees, in the bottom part of bogs and in reservoirs with standing or running water. Being in the state of the pupa, they are already moving, leaning against the thorn that they have in the region of the head, on the ground.
Unlike the long-legged, absolutely safe for humans, there is a tropical mosquito in tropical climates, which is deadly for people. One bite of it can be enough for a lethal outcome from malaria or fever. So, in African countries there have been epidemics in our time, taking from one and a half to two and a half million people. It should be noted that malarial mosquitoes get along well with the pathogens of these diseases, therefore, after sucking infected blood, the mosquito will transmit the disease to a healthy person only in a week. During this time, the pathogens of the disease in it ripen, go through the preparatory stage, and then, with the bite of another victim, infect it.
For mosquitoes, high humidity is the most important condition for good development. They breed very well in the water. From the eggs laid in the water, larvae similar to worms appear. They turn over in the water upside down, clinging to the surface water film with a tail, and breathe it. Feeling danger or some excitement on the water, larvae and pupae easily dive to the bottom, they feel good there and develop two weeks before growing up.
The long-legged mosquito does not last long. His female will die in two months, and the mosquito itself - much earlier.