Body hair does not seem useful to modern man today. But it turns out the hair can help us detect the parasite. Researchers even suspect that the women of ancient human ancestors, it is likely that men prefer a thicker body hair, due to flea and parasite free.
Fine hair that covers our body is characteristic of the remaining alleged evolutionary ancestors of humans whose bodies were tightly covered with feathers. Now the researchers found that fine hair proved to be extremely useful, especially in detecting the presence of bedbugs.
"I led a research group that tries to understand the biology of blood-sucking insects," said Michael Siva-Jothy, evolutionary ecologist at the University of Sheffield in England. "We wanted to find a way to control these insects effectively and prevent the transmission of insect-borne diseases."
The researchers recruited 29 college students via Facebook and shaved one of their arms. Researchers tested how long the students detect bedbugs are placed in each arm and how long the parasite to find the best location to eat.
The research found that the body hair to help people detect the presence of bedbugs. The presence of lice in the hair-covered hand is much faster than the unknown arm "bare," because the hair sebagal function motion detector. Hair also slows the movement of parasites to locate food.
Men are much more rapidly detect the parasite, rather than women because men are more dense body hair thanks to their high levels of testosterone. But that does not mean women are more often bitten. Therefore, bedbugs usually prefer to bite at the ankle, which is rarely overgrown hair. *** [LIVESCIENCE | KORAN TEMPO 3740]
