Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops

phenomena.nationalgeographic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 81 posts

Re: How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops

#3

Post by developer1 »

Of course the video doesn't show anything interesting, the mosquito's leg is hardly even grazed. I was definitely hoping for the version where a drop smacked the insect dead on target. Fairly strange for a lab result - if that's the only video that was captured, it really doesn't seem to divulge much at all. Where's the cool video? :D

Re: How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops

#6

Post by e2e8 »

developer1 wrote: post #3

Of course the video doesn't show anything interesting, the mosquito's leg is hardly even grazed. I was definitely hoping for the version where a drop smacked the insect dead on target. Fairly strange for a lab result - if that's the only video that was captured, it really doesn't seem to divulge much at all. Where's the cool video? :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88ny09ruM

Re: How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops

#7

Post by rlu »

developer1 wrote: post #3

Of course the video doesn't show anything interesting, the mosquito's leg is hardly even grazed. I was definitely hoping for the version where a drop smacked the insect dead on target. Fairly strange for a lab result - if that's the only video that was captured, it really doesn't seem to divulge much at all. Where's the cool video? :D

Yeah it's weird especially since you just get done reading about how they get away with getting hit between the wings and then you get told "if you want to see this for yourself, watch the video" ... lol

Still a good read with fun drawings :)

Re: How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops

#8

Post by whoopdedo »

theVirginian wrote: post #4

It would appear they haven't yet evolved to deal with being hit by cars quite as gracefully.

I think this can be approached the same as the "ants can lift 50 times their own weight" bit of trivia. It doesn't translate to "if a human were as strong as an ant he'd be able to lift an elephant" because size doesn't scale that way. Ants and mosquitoes get away with larger forces relative to their mass because the skeleton and muscles needed are still within reasonable material and fuel costs. A human-sized animal that wanted to survive being hit by a car would need to spend much more energy per mass than the insect does.

Re: How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops

#9

Post by k_brother »

sohkamyung wrote: post #5
state wrote: post #2

Can't help but immediately notice: "Drawing by Robert Krulwich"

Yes, Robert Krulwich has joined the Nat Geo Phenomena blogging platform [ http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/blog/curiously-krulw... ]

I think the commenter meant that Krulwich actually illustrated the piece too. Who knew Krulwich could draw!
Post reply on HN