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This season's official tally of people who fell ill with dengue fever, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, was the highest for years at more than 37,000, with 227 recorded fatalities. Picture: Karen Sandison
London - Thought all this rain might at least wash away those summer mosquitoes? Think again. A study by the Georgia Institute of Technology in America has discovered why mosquitoes and other small insects can continue to fly through the air undisturbed — even if it’s bucketing down.
They found a mosquito can be hit by a raindrop weighing 50 times its body weight — the equivalent of a grown man being hit by a falling lorry — and simply fly on. It is all down to the mosquitoes’ remarkably tough frames or exoskeletons and the tiny hairs on their wings and bodies which allow water to run off without the insects losing momentum.
Researchers used small acrylic cages covered with mesh to conduct their experiments. Several mosquitoes were placed into each cage, and a water jet was used to simulate a rain stream. Every mosquito survived unharmed. - Daily Mail
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