The mosquito begins life as a tiny larva crawling out of an egg laid on water. The wiggler breathes through a microscopic breathing tube at the tip of it abdomen which has five flaps that open to draw in air and then close whenever it goes under water. As the mosquito grows from wiggler to pupa to adult, it goes through a total chemical rearrangement, emerging as an adult capable of flying through the air.
The male mosquito has no bite and lives only a little over a week during which time it must mate. His antennae have been specifically equipped with whirls of long hair having special sensory cells at their base. The female's wings are designed to beat with such intensity that they move these hairs from up to 10 inches away. The movement stimulates a mating instinct, which takes place in the air. The female stores the male's reproductive cells in a special sac for immediate or later use.
The female mosquito needs a supply of blood before fertilizing her eggs. As soon as she lands on her victim, she goes to work with a special set of tools tucked inside her proboscis (mouthpiece). This mouthpiece has a syringe for injecting numbing and anti-thickening chemicals, two tiny spears to start the drilling operation, both a coarse and fine-toothed saw for cutting through different skin thicknesses, and a syringe connected to a pump in her head through which she can suck up to 4 times her body weight in blood.
A careful study of its many parts reveal that even the irritating mosquito is a creature uniquely designed for its specific function, not the result of evolution by random changes.
From A Closer Look at the Evidence by Kleiss, June 20.
