In the icy expansions of Antarctica, only a few plants and animals, including a single insect, survive. As the little mosquito does, researchers have now investigated. At freezing temperatures, the body of the mosquito forms ice.
She also doesn’t mind drying out temporarily. A two -year development cycle of larvae is also typical. The animals only live for a few days as adults, as reported in the “scientific reports” journal.
The researchers from Japan followed the lives of the Belgica Antarctica mosquito from egg to four larval stages to the finished insect in the laboratory. The larvae, which, among other things, feed on algae and moss, grow first and take a break in the first winter. Your development then continues as soon as it gets warmer.
When the second winter approaches, a mandatory diapause will follow. This is a genetically anchored, regardless of the weather, development interruption that occurs in all circumstances in all individuals of a population. In this phase, metabolism is greatly reduced, the mosquitoes can then survive unfavorable seasons.
In Belgica Antarctica all animals at the end of this phase and they come out at the same time. This has the background that the small mosquitoes stay just a few days for a few.
Source: Krone
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