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from the https://youtube.com/watch?v=XZubL4mZ5n0 dept.
The University of California, Irvine School of Medicine-led team studied mosquito species that bite in the daytime (Aedes aegypti, aka the Yellow Fever mosquito) and those that bite at night (Anopheles coluzzi, a member of the Anopheles gambiae family, the major vector for malaria). They found distinct responses to ultraviolet light and other colors of light between the two species.
[...] We find that day-biting mosquitoes are attracted to a wide range of light spectra during the daytime, whereas night-biting mosquitoes are strongly photophobic to short-wavelength light during the daytime," said principal investigator Todd C. Holmes, PhD, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the UCI School of Medicine. "Our results show that timing and light spectra are critical for species-specific light control of harmful mosquitoes."
[...] The new work shows that day-biting mosquitoes, particularly females that require blood meals for their fertilized eggs, are attracted to light during the day regardless of spectra. In contrast, night-biting mosquitoes specifically avoid ultraviolet (UV) and blue light during the day.
[...] "Light is the primary regulator of circadian rhythms and evokes a wide range of time-of-day specific behaviors," said Holmes. "By gaining an understanding of how insects respond to short wavelength light in a species-specific manner, we can develop new, environmentally friendly alternatives to controlling harmful insects more effectively and reduce the need for environmentally damaging toxic pesticides."
Journal Reference:
Lisa S. Baik, Ceazar Nave, David D. Au, et al. Circadian Regulation of Light-Evoked Attraction and Avoidance Behaviors in Daytime- versus Nighttime-Biting Mosquitoes, (DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.010)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Tuesday July 28 2020, @05:55PM (4 children)
Oh... yeah. Mosquitos. I remember those. Back when there were flying bugs around here. The street lights used to have clouds of bugs in the summer, bees and wasps were seen every day on our deck, and flies... ugh, pretty much everywhere. Dragonflies on our pond... those were neat.
Basically no bugs this summer though. We were out on the deck for a couple hours last night, enjoying the firepit, and nary a one. None around the streetlights, no moths, no nothing.
We're going through a hell of a lot more birdseed these days too. No surprise there.
But hey, no worries. It's all a hoax. #fakenews. Carry on.
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Science. It's like magic. Except real.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:59AM (3 children)
Meanwhile, here just off the Yellowstone River, instead of skeeters only in the evening, we've got 'em at all hours of the day and night. And grasshoppers so thick that when you walk, you're surrounded by heaving waves of insect flesh. And a couple species of wasp and small solitary bees that I hadn't seen before. And the black butterflies I hadn't seen in a few years. If you come get your missing insects, please be sure to take your share of the hoppers and skeeters.
Last year it was swarms of bee-flies (pretty furry yellow flies), preying mantis everywhere, and two species of gold beetles abundant enough to kill off all the bindweed. This year, not a one of these (at least not yet). No houseflies this year either.
In the desert, some years we'd get hover flies so thick they looked like a floating carpet, and other years none at all. Same with stink beetles.
Don't forget that critters that tend to overpopulate (which would be most insects) also have die-off cycles, and it's often localized.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:39AM (2 children)
I refer you to this. [wikipedia.org]
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I believe there's a person out there for everybody.
My person happened to be several cats.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:52AM (1 child)
As I recall, that was discredited for being mere spot evaluations, hardly representative of global populations.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:34PM
Actually read the page, then look through the references on the bottom. There is no "that." The page incorporates a summary of six completely independent studies, with references to more available via links, and they all agree: the problem is real. There's no way around it other than continuing to ride the #fakenews train.
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Science. It's like religion. Except real.