When a mosquito exposed to drops of rain, the effect is almost the same as man hit by a car. However, recent research found that the blood-sucking insects have no difficulty absorbing rain water pressure that weighs 50 times heavier than his weight.
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| A mosquito among water droplets. Thanks to their low mass, mosquitoes can survive hits from droplets 50 times their own weight. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/) |
Mosquitoes are so light weight, so that rain water does not splatter when hit the insect. In a report published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists showed that the mosquitoes will stick to the water and falls to 20 times its body length before break loose and fly without the slightest injury.
"The rain fell as fast as a comet, and not against the pressure of rain that happened, the mosquito would ride as a stowaway rain water," said David Hu, a professor of biology and mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, who led the study.
By sticking together and falling rain, mosquitoes can reduce the pressure generated by water droplets.
Expertise mosquitoes to survive this storm may be the key to how they survive in a damp climate. It also can provide inspiration in developing small flying robots that can work in the outdoors.
To investigate the mosquito defense techniques, he made experiments with water droplets bombards mosquitoes. The goal, to see how the response of the insect. They put it in a mosquito cage wire that vibrates every few seconds to prevent mosquito landing. They also dropped the "bomb" of water in the insect with a force equivalent to a rainstorm.
Although rainfall was 50 times heavier than the weight of a mosquito, it is not proved fatal collision. Encouragement of rainwater that could make the mosquitoes spinning in the air, but they soon recovered. *** [LIVESCIENCE | KORAN TEMPO 3904]
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